Police in Surrey have fined a 74-year-old woman £50 for cycling on the hard shoulder of the M25 motorway.

The woman, from New Haw near Weybridge, was apparently using what is one of Britain’s busiest stretches of road as a shortcut, according to a tweet from Surrey Roads Police.

She was stopped on Wednesday afternoon between junctions 10 and 11.

@SurreyRoadCops She was transported off the motorway and issued with a fixed penalty notice of £50 — Surrey Roads Police (@SurreyRoadCops) August 6, 2014

Cyclists take to the M25 with alarming regularity, with a number of instances of bike riders being spotted on the motorway flagged up by Getsurrey.co.uk.

According to the website, a cyclist from Ghana was arrested in June after police caught him cycling on the hard shoulder in Surrey and discovered that his visa had expired.

In May, a cyclist was seen by a driver riding the wrong way on the motorway, while in February a rider was caught by CCTV footage as he made his way across the slip road onto the hard shoulder.

The same month, another cyclist was found on the motorway after following instructions from his GPS unit as he sought to find a quicker way home from work.

Elsewhere, just a fortnight ago cyclists from the Sri Lanka national team who were in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games were discovered riding on the hard shoulder of the M74 while on a training ride.