The figures have been released by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) following a Freedom of Information request to every police force in England and Wales.

The statistics cover the two years from August 2013 – when the police were given the power to hand out on-the-spot penalties for offences such as tailgating – to August 2015 and show that a total of 17,468 people were convicted of this charge in this time period.

Some 33 out of 43 police forces responded to the IAM’s request. The force area with the highest number of people convicted was Essex (3,630), followed by Humberside (1,998), Nottinghamshire (1,139), Derbyshire (949) and Hampshire (929).

Sarah Sillars, IAM chief executive officer, said: “While these offences fall under the lower end of the scale for motoring transgressions, such driving behaviour could easily have caused a serious accident.

“Tailgating is an aggressive action designed to intimidate another driver, while unpredictable lane-changing is both thoughtless and dangerous.

“We hope these on-the-spot fines and remedial courses have helped concentrate the drivers’ minds and make them think twice about these potentially hazardous manoeuvres in the future.”