MOTORISTS are more likely to be hauled before the courts for speeding in Lancashire than any-where else in the country, new figures have shown.

More than 10,640 drivers were summonsed to appear before magistrates in Lancashire during 2012, including courts in Blackburn, Burnley and Accrington.

One road policing expert said that this demon-strated the county constabulary’s ‘robust’ approach to speed enforcement.

According to research undertaken by insurance giant LV, West Mercia Police, at 84,049, issued the most fixed penalty notices.

Police in Lancashire issued the third highest number of fines over the same period, at just over 52,750, the survey showed.

And the number of summons for speeding offences was far in excess of the next nearest constabulary, Hampshire, on 6,778, and Notting-hamshire, on 4,771.

Sgt Gareth Hill, of the Penning road policing team at Colne, said the figures demonstrated the ‘robust’ way in which the constabulary dealt with speeding.

He said: “We certainly carry out a lot of work across the county with both our hand-held cameras and by monitoring motorists’ driving.”

He said the force tried to focus on the ‘fatal four’ road accidents – speeding, mobile phone usage, seatbelt deployment and drink-driving.

Around half of the country’s police forces responded to the LV survey, which relied on statistics provided under the Freedom of Information Act.

John O’Roarke, the firm’s managing director, said: “While overall speed-ing convictions are down, it appears that the police are rightly taking a hard line on the most serious speeding offences.

“However, if a driver is caught exceeding the limit by even just a few miles an hour they can still be fined and given penalty points.

“Drivers should take care to know their limits to avoid a fine, penalty points or worse.”