Three quarters of speed cameras in Sussex are fake.

A survey by car magazine Auto Express found only one in four of the 56 speed cameras in Sussex is fitted with a real camera.

The rest have a flashing bulb to trick drivers into thinking they have been caught.

Builder Roger McArthur, who travels to Brighton and Hove every day from his home in Southwick, found the statistics surprising.

He said: "I'm amazed. I'd heard rumours the odd one wasn't real but I thought it was about five per cent. If they are going to pay to put the box up they should put a camera in it."

Mr McArthur has never been caught speeding.

He said: "Once you know where a speed camera is, you always slow down for it and if you don't, you should get a ticket."

Brighton and Hove city councillor Ted Kemble, who works as a taxi driver, said: "I am quite surprised. All the ones I go past in Brighton and Hove seem to be real. I thought at least 60 per cent of them were.

"It's basically a Russian roulette for drivers but as long as the real cameras are moved around, people will never know which ones are real and will slow down."

A spokeswoman for the Sussex Safety Camera Partnership (SSCP) said the ratio of real cameras to camera housings was reducing accidents and proved the partnership was not out to make money from motorists.

She said: "Every single camera has a flashing bulb and the real cameras can be moved on a daily basis.

"We want drivers to be warned about their speed but not to be penalised. This flies in the face of critics who say we only want to make money.

"The current system works. We could easily put cameras in every housing and make four times the amount in fines but that is not what we are trying to do."

More than £3.7 million was collected in fines across Sussex last year and while much of it was ploughed back into safety schemes, £1.6 million went to the Government - fuelling accusations that cameras were being used as a stealth tax.

The SSCP annual report out earlier this year showed serious injury crashes and deaths were cut by 31 per cent at fixed camera sites and 16 per cent where mobile cameras were used.

A spokeswoman from the RAC said: "Speed cameras have a positive role to play in encouraging motorists to be more aware of road safety.

"But a speed camera is unable to detect the vast range of road traffic offences.

"More visible traffic police are needed on our roads."