The embarrassing malfunction has come in the follow-up to a Government audit that gave its cameras the all clear.

If fixed cameras are cash registers on poles, then one in particular seems to be working overtime. It’s snapping drivers on green, amber and red lights, and at any speed - capturing images when there were cars, and even when there were no cars at all.

On the Princess Highway near Webster Street in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong, a speed and red light camera is potentially the most profitable cash cow of them all.

• Video speed cameras
• Driving at a snail's pace
• Revolting against tolls

“We came through here about 7 o'clock and it was flashing. When we came back about 9 o'clock it was still flashing,” said eighteen-year-old Gemma Shortis.

Shortis was travelling with her sister on Sunday night when she decided to get out of the car and start filming the camera on her phone. She says in that time “a good 100 or so cars went through”.

While Governments claim they save lives, this malfunctioning camera almost caused an accident.

Today Tonight's latest driving stories

“A motorcyclist slowed right down and nearly got a car,” Shortis said.

Joseph Wright, who saw the same camera flashing erratically over a week ago, says “they are not perfect, and they are not correct. Along this street it has been faulty for quite a long time I would say.”

John King, a crusader against speed cameras, believes where there is one defect, there could be more.

“We don’t know whether it’s just the flasher unit that is faulty, or the sensors in the road are faulty, or the camera is faulty and not recording the correct speed. Somebody doing 60 could be photographed at 70, with two or three points lost,” King said.

As Victorian Opposition Leader, Ted Baillieu complained cameras were revenue raisers. But now, as Premier, he's given the green light for another 32 cameras.

Victorian Police Minister Peter Ryan says “I directed the cameras should not be turned on till we completed the inquiry by the Auditor General. I now have a report tabled in the Parliament and now in the course of the coming weeks, they'll all be turned on.”

In the last year across the country, infringements have risen. More than 600,000 speeding fines were issued in Queensland; around 200,000 in New South Wales, and more than 1.5 million in Victoria.

“The cameras work. I mean people should just slow down,” Minister Ryan said.

Despite that, this year's road toll has reached the same level as last year, although Minister Ryan says overall accidents are down.

“From the introduction of the cameras, going back into the 90s, there has been a trend downward on the loss of lives,” he said.

But with more cameras, the revenue trend is up. If you are flashed by a camera you'll cop a fine: in Victoria it starts from $153 for a low range offence, and goes up to $611. A red light infringement equals a $305 fine.

If the camera is flashing every three seconds, that's up to 20 cars a minute, 1200 cars an hour being pinged. That’s potentially tens of thousands of dollars in fines on their way to innocent drivers.

“If there are issues of this matter, quite happily they can be sent to police,” Minister Ryan said.

The Department of Justice says although the camera was certified on September 21, it is seeking more information on the flash component.

“If it is producing photos, the police should be picking up that there's an anomaly,” said Barrister Sean Hardy.

And Hardy has this advice: “you should be taking that fine to the police to review, and seeing if they'll withdraw it.”