In Crawley, two cameras were targetted with disgruntled drivers getting more desperate in their method of attack.

One device on the C406 in Bewbush Drive, Crawley, was hit twice, once in August last year and again in March this year.

The first time it was torched and the second time vandals tried to disable it by damaging the lock.

An arson attempt was also made on the camera on C207 in Gatwick Road, Crawley, in October last year but luckily the fire caused no damage to the device.

However Sussex Police refused to reveal the top two speed cameras in the county for fear of tipping motorists off.

In response to the Freedom of Information request, it said: "..(the material] would provide the community with tactical information on road safety initiatives.. (and] ...make the public aware of their chances of being 'captured' at a particular site.

"It could be argued that the release of the data would ensure motorists adhere to the speed limits as they would know if the risk of being captured is high.

"However, individuals could become complacent at other camera site locations and not adhere to the speed limitations for those sites as they would feel that the chances of being captured are relatively low."

The vigilante group Motorists Against Detection (MAD) claim to be responsible for the vast majority of Gatso attacks.

Head of the group, Captain Gatso, said: "We are very active and our numbers are growing all the time as people get more and more fed up with these infringements.

"Few people do this off their own backs and those who do usually get caught. Our guys have look-outs and stool pigeons and do it in the dead of night so they don't get arrested.

"These are nice normal people who've had enough. Nobody is getting hurt."

MAD claims to have been responsible for more than 1,000 attacks on speed cameras across the UK since it was set up in 2000.

Last year across the whole of the country there were 199 attacks on cameras costing more than half-a-million pounds to fix.