Essex has been named as the speeding capital of England and Wales with more than 17,000 fines dished out by police.

New figures show that Essex Police handed out 17,004 speeding fines in 2002 - more than 5,000 more than the next force in the list, Thames Valley, who prosecuted 11,887.

The number of convictions in the county is also more than Wales, Surrey, Sussex and Suffolk put together and the figures don't even include those who paid their fines without demanding a court appearance.

According to the statistics, Essex accounted for more than ten per cent of all speeding prosecutions in magistrates' courts and handed over £8m in fines to the Treasury.

Police were unable to explain why the figures were so high but suggested one explanation was the number of busy roads in the county such as the M25, M11, A127, A12 and A13.

An Essex Police spokeswoman said: "We are determined to improve safety on the roads, we want to cut down on casualties and we will prosecute people who continue to exceed speed limits.

"We have a policy of using speed cameras which are highly visible to catch those who persist in speeding."