SPEEDING motorists who slam on the brakes just before passing a speed camera are in for a nasty shock in Dorset from June.

The county will be one of the first in Britain to use state-of-the-art new mobile cameras which can spot a speeding vehicle from more than a mile away.

The ProLaser III, will be used in trials this month and will go live in June or July.

And bosses at the Dorset Safety Camera Partnership are confident its use will lead to a further reduction in deaths and injuries on the roads.

"We know that some members of the public race towards cameras and then brake hard as they pass and speed up again after the cameras," said Johnny Stephens, of the partnership.

"This new technology will assist the partnership in stopping this very dangerous practice."

He described the camera, which combines laser technology with video as "one of the most technically advanced pieces of safety camera equipment on the market" and said its video capability will also make it more difficult for drivers to deny that they were behind the wheel when an offence was committed.

The camera can detect a vehicle's speed at a range of up to 2,000 metres. It uses a laser to project a signal onto the vehicle, which bounces it back to a receiver - enabling the camera to measure the car's distance and its speed of travel.

Though it will mostly be used where speed cameras already operate, there'll be no extra signage warning motorists of the new camera's presence.

The Partnership refused to disclose the cost of the cameras or the numbers to be used.

Speed cameras have caused controversy since their introduction and last week even officers at the Police Federation conference in Bournemouth voiced concerns about their use.

Clive Chamberlain, Dorset representative of the Police Federation, said: "One of our primary objectives should be to provide public reassurance by high visibility policing. I don't know how much the introduction of an even more covert camera will do towards enhancing this objective."

First published: May 25