The plans that would allow police to issue on-the-spot fines for motoring offences has been heavily criticised by magistrates. Under these new proposals police would be able to give out fines for careless driving without the need for the courts to get involved.

However, John Thornhill, chairman of the Magistrates’ Association has spoken out against these potential rulings as he declared that driving carelessly is subjective and this would undermine justice.

Mr Thornhill said that in practice, police would be acting as the jury and sentencer if they were given the go ahead for these new proposals. Careless driving would be punished as a fixed-penalty offence and motorists would be given a fine and three points would be added to their licence.

Mr Thornhill is concerned that many people would pay up just to resolve the matter, without realising that this conviction would show up in future criminal record checks. He explained on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the idea is “effectively saying that every case of careless driving is the same”.

He added:

“We have been investigating the use of out of court disposals, on-the-spot-fines for the last 12 months, and the evidence we have suggests that on many occasions, where the matter is serious police go for the easy option of the on-the-spot fine, because it’s done and dusted, dealt with there and then.”

At present, those suspected of careless driving are prosecuted in the courts, where there is a maximum fine of £5,000 and up to nine points can be imposed.