Home Office clamps down on road racers
The government has announced plans to charge motorists found guilty of speeding an extra £5 in fines to fund victim support services.
The Home Office plans to create a new national victims’ fund to provide “a broader and more effective” range of services for crime victims.
The levy will help address the perceived imbalance of justice in serious criminal cases such as murder, rape, violent assault and other crimes, home secretary David Blunkett said.
Though parking fines would be exempt from the new levy, uninsured drivers will be fined an extra £10.
Mr Blunkett said increased on-the-spot fines would be used to punish crank 999 callers or those found drunk and disorderly.
Mr Blunkett said: “We want compensation to victims to be targeted in the right way, and to come from the most appropriate sources. With these proposals we look to the perpetrators as well as the state.”
The new plans are not without their critics. Mr Blunkett’s Tory shadow David Davis said: “We all want to see greater support for people who suffer criminal injury, but this does seem a very odd way of raising the money for it.
“You would normally expect the people who pay into such a scheme to be the people who cause the injury and harm. But what this appears to be is yet another levy on the motorist – it is an extraordinary way to raise this money.”
And Kevin Delaney, the RAC Foundation’s spokesman said: “Imposing these levies will not be seen by motorists as particularly logical or just.
“They will view it as yet another way of parting them with their hard-earned money.”
