THEY'VE already trapped hundreds of motorists who have driven at over 50mph on the Wessex Way.

But now a Bournemouth businessman believes all those who have been caught on the new yellow speed cameras may be able to get their convictions quashed - because, he claims, the road could be displaying the wrong signs.

Robert Houtman was snapped doing 58 mph in his Mercedes on the dual carriageway, and was given a £60 fine and three points on his licence.

"I was about to pay when I remembered reading a story earlier this week about a case heard in Cleveland," he says. "Two drivers persuaded a court that the signs announcing the speed camera limit they had broken were illegal, because they have a thick, black border around them which apparently breach the Department of Transport's regulations."

Mr Houtman, who runs the National Slimming Centre in Old Christchurch Road, then called Dorset Police.

"After a while someone got back to me, and admitted that some of the speed camera signs along the Wessex Way did breach the regulation. But they still believed there were adequate legal signs to make a prosecution viable."

Mr Houtman then photographed all the signs from the Blackwater Bridge towards the centre of Bournemouth, and is now considering contesting the speed ticket.

"I don't deny I was breaking the limit on that part of the road, but it's up to the police to ensure their prosecutions follow the correct procedure," he says.

"I think the new cameras have been put up to deliberately trap motorists. Before, you could see them very clearly. Now, as you come into Bournemouth, you're on a road that looks like a dual carriageway but whose speed limit is just 50 mph and where there are two cameras in quick succession. At least one of the cameras is partially hidden by streetlights. I could understand if this road was an accident blackspot, but it isn't."

Dorset's speed cameras are managed by a partnership comprising local councils, the magistrates' courts service and the county police.

Dorset Safety Camera Partnership spokeswoman Sarah Townsend said that because the case was live, she couldn't comment specifically on it.

But, she added: "The partnership can confirm that the safety camera signage installed on the Wessex Way, as with all its signage throughout Dorset, has been surveyed and checked for legality.

"These surveys demonstrated that all of the signage complies with the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions."

Dorset's Head of Road Policing, Chief Inspector Glen Chalk, said he had nothing to add to the statement.

In the earlier court case, reported in Guiseborough, the two men who were accused of speeding, and later acquitted, were police officers. The illegal signs featured a red and white 50mph roundel within a yellow background, above a picture of a camera with the words 'speed camera' below.

The presence of the thick black border around them rendered them in breach of DoT regulations, magistrates ruled.