The number of motorists completing speed awareness courses has soared by a third in the past five years, with police forces now pulling in more than £50 million annually from the schemes, new figures have revealed.

Last year around 1.2 million drivers opted to attend a course rather than accept a fine or penalty points on their licence.

That was up from just 280,000 a decade ago and means a quarter of all British drivers have now been on a speed awareness course at some point.

The four-hour classroom based tutorials cost between £75 and £99, depending where in the country you are, with police forces permitted to claim a maximum of £45 from that figure to cover administration costs.

The amount of money the police are allowed to claim was increased in October 2017, and comes at a time when all forces are having to cope with shrinking budgets.