A VIGILANTE anti-speed camera group has destroyed a second device in East Lancashire in the space of a week.

Motorists Against Detection (MAD), led by campaigns director Captain Gatso, has pledged to target cameras in the area and today claimed one of its members had vandalised the device on Burnley Road, Colne, over the weekend.

Captain Gatso, who has gained national notoriety disguising his identity wearing a Tony Blair mask, said a member of the group had texted and e-mailed to say he had used a four wheel drive vehicle to pull the camera out of the ground.

Last week the group, which has more than 200 members, admitted responsibility for petrol bombing a camera in Bacup after filling a tyre with unleaded petrol and attaching a chain before throwing it over the camera in Rochdale Road - a practice branded as necklacing'.

The MAD membership use internet chat forums, encrypted email and pay-as-you-go phones to keep in touch and plan campaigns.

Captain Gatso, a family man from London, in his 40s and has a professional career, said: "This is part of an ongoing campaign of action and more cameras will be targeted over the forthcoming weeks.

"This is an issue of privacy and human rights and we also say that money on cameras would be better spent paying for extra police to patrol the streets."

Several cameras have been targeted during recent years, including one in Newchurch Road, Stacksteads and Haslingden Road, Rawtenstall.

John Davies, of the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, blasted the perpetrators as "irresponsible and dangerous".

Police are investigating.