Motorists desperate to avoid a speeding ticket are turning to computers in order to avoid speed cameras.

A national online database of permament speed camera sites is proving a big hit with drivers fed up of falling foul of speeding fines.

Thousands have logged onto the site, set up by the Association of British Drivers, to see where the cameras are in their local area.

Now police and councils in Cleveland have gone a step further by setting up their own database which also lists areas likely to be patrolled by cops with mobile cameras.

All 39 in-town camera locations on Teesside are revealed by accessing a website, produced by the Cleveland Safety Camera Partnership.

Cleveland is one of six areas around the country taking part in a national scheme where police were given the all clear to keep cash from speed fines to pay for even more cameras.

Campaign spokesman Mick Bennett, who recently retired as a Cleveland Police traffic inspector, said: "We are trying to say exactly where the cameras are, to slow people down enough to reduce our casualty problem. We are being open, inviting people to slow down before meeting a camera.''

The scheme has been criticised by motoring groups as a thinly veiled attempt to generate more cash.

They claim the participants, including Cleveland, were carefully selected to prove the Government's claims that cameras cut road deaths.

Four out of the six areas had seen a big rise in road accidents the year before the trials started. Opponents say the numbers would have fallen anyway.

However Mr Bennett said cameras were only installed on roads with proven high accident records and had already contributed to a 17 percent drop in fatal accidents and 44 percent reduction in injury accidents.

"We do not want to 'catch' people and there is no money making scheme - we want to reduce collision rates and the numbers injured or killed on our roads because of speed,'' he added.

The website, www.clevelandsafetycameras.co.uk will be backed up with ongoing public meetings, reinforced with advertising on bus, shelters, radio advertising and leaflets.

The Association of British Drivers' website can be accessed at www.abd.org.uk/cameras/map.htm.