Motorists give penalty fine hike the hard shoulder

Under the proposals, the fines for minor motoring offences would go up from £60 to £90 to give a £30m cash boost to a fund set up to benefit victims of crime and witness support.

The IAM asked 1,129 people whether they agreed with the changes, 51 per cent disagreed with them – 28 per cent strong disagreed. 35 per cent of people agreed with the proposed fine hike.

However, when asked whether they thought that if the money generated was invested in road safety and victim support, more than 80 per cent said they supported the scheme.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “While funding victims of crime is laudable, the real aim of fines for motoring offences should be deterrence.

“We want to stop people breaking the law. Having an income that relies on dangerous driving won’t help reduce crashes. There is a strong case for this money to be spent on road safety.”

The survey also uncovered that the biggest deterrent to bad driving was the likelihood that they are caught by traffic cops, according to 68 per cent of those quizzed.

Half of those who responded also said injury of the risk of death also deterred bad driving.

* What do you think about the increased fines? Is it right that the money goes toward victims of crime? Or is this going too far or missing the point about bad driving? Let us know. @SpenGBen