THOUSANDS of drivers could see their speeding tickets, points and even convictions wiped out – after a long-running fault was discovered in speed cameras on smart motorways and some A-roads.

The Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, has ordered an independent probe after it emerged that mistakes meant people were wrongly chased for speeding when they may not have done anything wrong.

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Heavy traffic on the M4 at Langley, Berkshire, with 40mph variable speed limits due to overnight rain.
A smart motorway glitch has meant the gantry speed limit could change, but the camera didn’t update straight awayCredit: Alamy
 

Average speed cameras on a yellow gantry above a busy motorway.
Drivers doing what the sign said could still be clocked as speedingCredit: Alamy
According to the Daily Mail, more than 36,000 speeding cases have already been binned off after a glitch was found in the variable speed limit camera systems – with many of the cases linked to the period after new kit was brought in around 2021.

But the Department for Transport has also admitted the net needs to be cast wider.

Indeed, National Highways has been told to go back as far as 2019 when the camera upgrade work started, to make sure everyone caught up in it is found – meaning even more drivers could end up having penalties overturned.

The fault itself is described as a timing problem, as when the overhead gantry sign changed the speed limit, the cameras did not always switch over at the same moment.

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At times, the cameras lagged a few seconds behind the gantry signs, meaning a driver could be doing the speed shown but still get caught as if the older, lower limit was in force.

The glitch only properly came to light because some drivers fought the allegations and turned up in court with dashcam footage showing they were sticking to what the gantry told them.

It’s thought 154 cameras over roughly four years have been affected.

At one stage, the issue was considered so serious that police even switched some cameras off because they could not be trusted.

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It’s possible that two wrong cases a day could’ve been recorded, with roughly 2,650 innocent drivers identified.

Police have also told some 36,000 motorists that their speed awareness courses are being cancelled as a precaution while things are checked.

Worse still, in a small number of cases, people may even have been banned from driving due to prosecutions that should never have happened.

Hugh Bladon, senior spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, has warned that losing a licence can also mean losing your job.

He said: “When you consider somebody could lose their licence and maybe their job as a result of one of these faulty speed cameras, the implications are incredible.

“It’s an awful lot of people who have been unfairly punished for doing something entirely innocent.

“God knows how the government is going to sort this compensation. If you are someone who has lost your job as a result of unfairly losing your driving licence, how do you recompense that?

“The cost to the government is going to be substantial.

“And it’s going to be a monumental headache for the government trying to sort this out, although I suppose it will be up to the drivers affected to step forward and say: This happened to me.

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“We have heard stories of people who have been unfairly punished, and that is justice gone wrong.”

An independent review will be led by Tracey Westell, a Department for Transport board member, to determine how the fault happened, why it was not spotted sooner and how problems like this are meant to be flagged and escalated inside National Highways so they are not left to rumble on for years.