FORMER England international footballer Paul Walsh is tackling unfair speeding convictions.

The ex-Liverpool, Tottenham and Portsmouth player is hoping to gain support for his bid to persuade the High Court to boot out thousands of Hampshire speeding penalties.

Mr Walsh, who lives in Sarisbury Green, is disgusted that the Safer Roads Partnership has refused to refund fines and remove points from motorists' licences, despite losing a legal case that found speed limits on a major Hampshire road were not legal.

In October, Mr Walsh, 45, was one of the motorists who had a speeding prosecution thrown out as a result of a court ruling that speed limit signs on the A27 near Fareham did not comply with the law.

District Judge Philip Gillibrand found that the 40mph limit on a five-mile stretch of the busy road, between Titchfield and Cams Hill, effectively did not legally exist.

As a result, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped actions against several other drivers because there was no chance of a conviction.

Legal experts argued the judge's findings meant all fines paid by motorists over at least the last two years for offences on the same stretch of road should be refunded, and the points taken off their licences.

Although police have since suspended speed enforcement in the area, they have continued to process penalties and do not accept that convictions should be overturned.

"It's an absolute scandal and I want to fight it," Mr Walsh told the Daily Echo.

Both he and his wife have existing points on their licences for speeding on the same stretch of the A27 where the signing was ruled insufficient.

Mr Walsh believes the Safer Roads Partnership should refund fixed penalty fines paid since the signs have been faulty, but if it still refuses he wants to take it to a judicial review.

He has joined forces with solicitor Barry Culshaw, who last month lodged a formal complaint against Hampshire Chief Constable Paul Kernaghan over the handling of the fines.

"I'd like anyone who has been done to join forces and take this on," said Mr Walsh.

"Going to the High Court costs a substantial amount of money, and I think they're gambling that we don't do it, but the more people that come forward the less it will cost each of us.

"There's people's livelihoods at stake because of these points.

"How they can say they're not going to refund us when they've been found to be in the wrong just dumbfounds me.

"Sometimes when you're caught speeding you just have to put your hands up.

"The police have been found in the wrong and fined thousands of people they shouldn't, and they should put their hands up."