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About 2,500 convicted motorists will have their speeding fines refunded and penalty points rescinded after a driver successfully challenged a "chaotic" system of restriction signs at roadworks.

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The drivers were trapped by a speed camera on the A303 at Folly Bottom, near Amesbury, between September 2003 and January last year.

The Wiltshire and Swindon Road Safety Partnership, which operated the camera, is writing to 2,467 motorists to say that it intends to refund the £60 fines - at a total cost of £148,020 - and remove the penalty points. It will also consider any claim for compensation.

The move follows a court challenge by Clair Allison, 48, a Sky Television make-up artist, who spent months taking photographs and gathering video evidence after she was caught breaking the temporary 40mph limit.

At Salisbury magistrates' court 10 days ago, Miss Allison and 27 other motorists had speeding cases dismissed after they said that signs were not displayed properly, were not out at all, or were not backed up by necessary documentation.

Miss Allison said: "I drive a very high mileage and I do my very best always to drive safely. The ticket in the post made me so angry because I knew that I had not passed a speed limit sign."

She said she had conducted her battle on behalf of "middle Englanders" and added: "We were not boy racers tearing about a housing estate."

The Crown Prosecution Service decided to offer no evidence after Barry Culshaw, for the drivers, argued that the signing was flawed.

He said yesterday: "The Crown had to concede they could not prove at any given time who put a sign up, who pulled it down and when. The police camera vehicle was doing most of its enforcement from a bridge. The site was chaotic. Sometimes cones were out and sometimes not. Sometimes there were signs and cones and sometimes nothing at all."

He added: "If this can happen at Folly Bottom, is it not happening nationwide? There is an intricate web of regulations and statute, which applies to roadworks signings. If they have not got it right, the motorist has an absolute defence."

A Highways Agency spokesman said that it would be issuing guidance to contractors to ensure that signs were in the right places. In cases where there were roadworks, contractors were being advised to video signs.

The A303 roadworks lasted until last August when a further 3,000 motorists were fined. However, the partnership said it was confident it could rebut a challenge by any of those motorists, as documents were available.

Sgt Nick Blencowe, of the partnership, said that, although the case against the motorists had collapsed, they would have been aware of the extensive roadworks and should have been more cautious.

"At least one was detected not only exceeding the temporary 40mph speed limit but also the national 70mph speed limit."

An interesting article in the Telegraph on 01 March 2005. The cynical side of me says that the bad positioning of signs (or no signs at all) in roadworks is the latest ploy to trap motorists into becoming the goose to lay golden eggs for the authorities.