A speed camera scoop by the East Anglian Daily Times found that some of Suffolk’s safety cameras are fakes.

But the paper has been told it cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to reveal their location.

Road safety bosses told reporter Danielle Nuttall that only a proportion of their fixed camera sites were 'live' at any one time.

The paper made its query under the FoI Act, but investigations faltered when Suffolk SafeCam, which manages the county’s speed cameras, said a detailed breakdown of the number of speeding tickets from each location was prohibited under Section 31 of the Act.

The paper said this meant speeding motorists would escape a conviction if ‘flashed’ by one of 15 dummy flashes in place.

But communications manager Michelle Finnerty said if the figures were revealed, motorists would work our which cameras had no film, and defeat the organisation’s aim of deterring speeding traffic by breaking the law.

She told the Daily Times that withholding certain information had been cleared by the information commissioner and Association of Chief Police Officers.

She said: "It’s not in the public interest to reveal sites with specific information. That’s why it is exempt."

The paper is a supporter of slowing drivers down, especially in the urban areas and villages in its varied circulation area.

But it vowed to keep developments on safety cameras under observation.

An editorial column that ran with the FoI story said: "This newspaper has always argued that 'speed kills' and that everything should be done to encourage drivers to slow down, especially in urban areas and villages. The case for speed cameras in Suffolk is that they led to an overall reduction in accidents of 40 per cent.

"There has also been a 50 per cent reduction in the number of people injured and a 70 per cent reduction in the number of crashes involving fatal or serious injury.

"That's excellent news.

"But any temptation to create more sites simply to exact fines out of motorists must be resisted.

"Further cameras should only be located after a proper audit of the road's safety record has been published and the need for them fully justified."