SPEED cameras across Scotland raised more than £5 million in fines last year, figures show.

The total is £200,000 higher than the previous year and the highest amount since 2014.

Cameras in Tayside, Central and Fife produced the most money, £1.3m, followed by Grampian and the Highlands and Islands, which generated £1.2m. The devices record motorists who break the speed limit with automatic fines, resulting in £5,095,100 being paid to courts in 2016-17.

The Scottish Conservatives, who discovered the figures through a Freedom of Information request, said speed cameras have a role to play in improving road safety but should not be seen as “cash cows”.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Liam Kerr said: “Motorists completely accept speed cameras have a place on Scotland’s roads to ensure safe driving. But there is a widespread suspicion that these are set up not to reduce speed, but to generate money from those edging over the various speed limits they police. 

“The fact that an ever-increasing amount of money is being generated from motorists for whom driving is becoming ever more expensive, will only reinforce this view that they are first and foremost simply being used as revenue-generators.”