Motorists who ignore speed limits are most likely to have their number-plates photographed in the Greater London area, according to recent research. GPS speed camera data supplier, RoadPilot, claims that drivers breaking speed limits in the capital are more than 100 times more likely to be caught on camera than anywhere else in the UK.

With 16 per cent of the country’s speed cameras, London has more roadside traps than the whole of Scotland, Ireland and Wales combined. Second to London is Birmingham, which has 7.4 per cent of the UK’s cameras. West Yorkshire has 6.7 per cent, Lancashire has 5.7 per cent and Staffordshire has five per cent.

RoadPilot’s CEO, James Flynn OBE, said that it was not a surprise to learn that London had the highest percentage of cameras in the country. He added that it was surprising to realise just how unevenly distributed the devices were. He went on to point out that the UK is probably the most heavily policed country in the world when it comes to speed limits.

The UK currently has around 5,500 speed cameras in operation on its roads. According to Flynn, the vast majority of these are set up to monitor 30mph restrictions. With only 3.6 per cent of all the cameras set up to catch speeding motorists on 70mph roads, it means that drivers don’t have to be operating at excessive speeds in order to be issued with a penalty.

Flynn concluded that with all the distractions on today’s roads, drivers needed to be constantly reminded of local limits.