HUNDREDS of motorists have signed up to a petition calling for speeding drivers to be sent on a course instead of facing prosecution.
The campaign, which has been launched by road traffic lawyer Graham Walker, wants to see speed awareness courses introduced in Scotland for drivers who are over the limit up to a certain threshold.
It is already widely used in the rest of the UK, with police diverting motorists to the course instead of issuing penalty points and a fine.
Mr Walker claims the move would help to improve driver behaviour and understanding of road safety, instead of treating Scottish motorists like "cash cows" and "needlessly punishing those who make simple mistakes".
He added: "I believe that speed awareness courses are a superb way to treat the real issue here - driver behaviour and understanding of road safety.
"If the police and courts keep targeting motorists with speeding tickets and penalty points they risk being perceived as stealth tax collectors.
"We need our drivers to realise that in general the police want to improve road safety in Scotland and they are willing to support training instead of fines."
Under current guidelines in England, issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), a speed awareness course can be instructed if a driver is caught speeding at certain levels, for example doing between 35mph and 42mph in a 30 zone and 68mph and 75mph in a 60 zone.
Anything below those levels is understood to be tolerated.
Police Scotland is also understood to have certain thresholds which much be reached before prosecution, but Mr Walker claims that drivers stopped within these levels in Scotland will face a £100 fixed penalty and three penalty points.
While the effectiveness of speed awareness courses is up for debate, an independent survey, commission by Acpo, showed that 99 per cent of drivers asked claimed to have changed their behaviour as a result of attending a course.
Mr Walker said: "Common sense tells me that if a driver attends a 4.5 hour training session predicated on improving his or her driving skill then that should make our roads a safer place to be.
"I would not cynically assume that all such drivers are there just to avoid the penalty points and therefore cannot or will not be open to the training.
"Since the driver is paying for the course, it seems to me that the general public have little to lose.
"The courses are not available to habitual offenders, are not available to people who already have live penalty points on their licence so these courses should target drivers who are perhaps open to more driver training and education."
The call has been backed by solicitor Peter Lockhart, a member of the Law Society's criminal law committee.
Mr Lockhart said: "I think the way to approach it is to think 'is this likely to improve driving standards?' and I suspect it is.
"It's certainly at least worth a pilot scheme to try it out."
However, solicitor advocate Richard Freeman argued that the move might make the situation worse for drivers in Scotland as Police Scotland are believed to have higher threshold levels than the rest of the UK.
He said: "In Scotland, the threshold for giving someone a fixed penalty or prosecuting is much higher than it is in England.
"It's lower in England because they can offer people the speed awareness course as an alternative.
"If they're going to bring it in line with what's going in the rest of the UK, then they would really need to look at lowering the threshold and it could end up being worse for drivers in Scotland because at the moment they're getting away with it completely."
Currently in Scotland, drink drivers can complete a drink-drive awareness course to have their driving ban cut.
In certain circumstances, courses can also be offered to motorists as an alternative to prosecution, but these are not commonly used.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it support the idea as a concept in certain cases. She added: "We continue to work with stakeholders to consider whether speed awareness courses would be a suitable addition to our efforts to improve road safety."
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