Craig Moore was sentenced yesterday to four months in jail after using thermite to destroy a speed camera according to reports.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "We have got to the point where literally millions of motorists wish they had the 'guts' to destroy speed cameras. Some will regard Craig Moore as a hero or a freedom fighter. This is symptomatic of a national road safety policy that ran off the rails years ago. The speed camera programme is now a runaway gravy train, and it must be stopped."

"Far from improving road safety, speed cameras have made matters much worse, leading to road deaths being one third higher now than anyone would have predicted before cameras were installed."

"Safe Speed certainly does not condone camera vandalism, but we come into daily contact with the extreme frustration experienced by motorists that ultimately causes it."

"Speed camera vandalism is reaching epidemic proportions, and the only solution is to scrap the cameras. Apart from their total failure to deliver improved road safety, they push good people outside of the law every day of the week."