ROAD safety bosses today admitted that eight in ten speed cameras in Lancashire are 'dummies' not capable of catching drivers.

Now MPs fear motorists will take risks and speed past cameras, safe in the knowledge they are unlikely to be caught.

But drivers were warned not to 'play Russian roulette' with the cameras, as they would not know which ones can flash them.

The Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, the police-backed body responsible for the cameras, today confirmed 84 per cent of the 293 cameras in the county did not work.

That leaves just 46 working cameras covering the whole of Lancashire.

Lancashire has less working cameras than nearly all the camera partnerships in England, but still raised more than £5million through speeding fines in 2003/2004.

A spokesman for the Association of British Drivers said: "Lancashire has a lot of mobile units and they're always live. So the figures are a slight red herring.

"It's very difficult for drivers to see which cameras are live or not and there aren't many drivers who would be prepared to play Russian roulette with it. Drivers have to treat them as if they're all live."

But Burnley MP Kitty Ussher said: "I think people are now beginning to realise that many speed cameras don't have film. I think we need to do something about this.

"We need to get films into more speed cameras. Its about deterrent not raising money through fines but it isn't a deterrent if people know they can speed past the cameras with a significant chance that there is no film in the camera so they get away with it."

There are 293 fixed safety cameras in Lancashire, along with 141 mobile locations and eight mobile enforcement vehicles -- six vans and two motorcycles.

Linda Sanderson, communications manager for the partnership, said: "This project is about encouraging people to stick to the speed limit and is only one part of the educational process. If people aren't going to conform to the limit and are prepared to take the risk they will have to pay the penalty."

The partnership was formed in 2001. Financial accounts show that in the year 2002/03 £3.674million was raised in fines, in 2003/2004 £5.074million was collected and in 2004/2005, £3.532million.

Speed cameras, also known as Gatsos, consist of three different components -- the yellow box, a speed detector which also flashes a light, and a camera. It is up to partnerships how they use the cameras, with some groups using only empty 'dummy' boxes, some using the box with the flashing light, and others using the full equipment.

The Partnership alternates the sitings of the live cameras.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "Speed cameras are an important part of persuading people to drive responsibly and safely. They don't have to have a film in all the time.

"They act as a deterrent for speeding and are not primarily there to raise money through fines. However, I do feel that it might help if a few more of Lancashire's cameras did have film in."

Adrian Walsh, spokesman for road safety education group Roadsafe, said: "There is no doubt that inappropriate speed is a cause of much death and injury on our roads."

But Adrian Shurmer, a Hyndburn-based road safety campaigner, questioned how effective the speed camera system was. He said: "Millions of pounds have been raised in fines but the accident rate is no better.

"There's only one answer to road safety and that's driver education. The current system is exploitation of people genuinely driving in an appropriate manner."