Home Office figures due early next year are expected to show a rise of around 30% in just 12 months in the numbers of drivers disqualified. The jump, insiders say, is a result of drivers reaching 12 penalty points under the totting-up system, rather than immediate disqualifications for drunk or dangerous driving.

The rapid rise is causing consternation among legal experts who know the law is based on widespread acceptance. If it catches too many people, and they think they have been penalised unreasonably, it becomes unenforceable.

Richard North is a typical victim. From his BMW 5-series to his elegant country home North is the epitome of respectability. So it surprised his neighbours when police pulled up on his drive in July with an arrest warrant for non-payment of speeding fines. He has made four court appearances in less than three years and he has accumulated 26 penalty points on his driving licence. “I am an ordinary man who is being criminalised,” he says.

For years, North says, he has driven with an unblemished record. All that changed with speed cameras. As a consultant to the European parliament he flies regularly to Brussels and Strasbourg. The drive to and from his Yorkshire home to one of the London airports or the Channel tunnel terminal is a 700-mile round trip, often at night or early in the morning. “It is a long journey but if I don’t do it I don’t see my family,” he says.

The last time North had an accident was when he clipped a parked car in 1976. But then, three years ago, he reached nine points under the totting-up system and found himself fighting for his licence. Within months he had appeared in front of the judge on four separate occasions in Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Derby and Barnsley to plead not to be disqualified. Twice he escaped. Each time, a further speeding offence landed him back in court. On the third occasion he was banned for 12 months, reduced to three on appeal. When his patience ran out he complained to the West Yorkshire safety camera partnership there were too many cameras and in the wrong places, a claim the partnership strongly denies. He was given the brush-off. After an acrimonious correspondence he was told by the partnership’s PR manager, Philip Gwynne, in an e-mail: "Would I be right in thinking you’re a close-minded (sic) bigot who wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in the arse?"

It seems that while North feels criminalised, others have sympathy. At his last court appearance in Barnsley, North persuaded magistrates he was indeed a responsible driver. The court took the unusual step of imposing a driving ban to run concurrent with the ban another court had imposed just two weeks earlier.

“I know it sounds like an excuse,” says North, “but I am just a hard-working professional who drives a lot of miles. Speed cameras are the bane of my existence.”