We managed to track down Gatso, who was unrepentant about the damage his organisation has caused.
He said: "These new figures are the reason why people like us are more active than ever. We are exasperated and cheesed off."
The new figures reveal that speed and traffic light cameras caught 1.1 million offenders in England and Wales in 2001 . . . compared with 770,000 the previous year.
As a result, nearly four times as many motorists were prosecuted or given a fixed penalty fine for speeding in 2001 than were fined five years earlier.
We can reveal that last year in the North alone, motorists forked out £3.8m in speeding fines . . . an increase of more than £400,000 on the previous 12 months.
MAD, believed to have in excess of 200 members countrywide, uses internet chatrooms, email and pay-as-you-go mobile phones to keep in touch.
It says it not against all speed cameras and believes they should be in place in built-up and urban areas. But it has waged a war on speed cameras on major trunk roads and motorways.
Captain Gatso told us: "We take direct action against cameras because that is the only way.
"We consider cameras that are put in place for revenue rather than safety fair game.
"The Government doesn't listen to anyone. The fact it is planning a war against Iraq is proof of that.
"We believe speed cameras should be situated in built-up and urban areas, but not on major trunk roads and motorways.
"One person asked me how I would feel if her child was knocked over on a road where we had put the speed camera out of action . . . but I said to her that her child wouldn't be running across the middle of a motorway."
Ironically, for a man who feels so strongly against speed cameras, Captain Gatso claims he has never been caught out by one himself.
A family man in his mid-30s, he said: "I've been flashed by a speed camera but never caught."
He claimed he avoided detection by "not registering my car correctly", but refused to elaborate.
Captain Gatso added: "I'm just a spokesman for the group and I don't get my hands dirty.
"But it doesn't bother me that we are breaking the law . . . the issue needs to be addressed.
"We are not lunatics and we are not boy racers.
"We are people in our mid-20s to mid-40s who are taking action we deem necessary. It is a matter of self defence."
A spokeswoman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: "Speed is a factor in one third of road accidents and costs more than 1000 lives on Britain's roads each year.
"Cameras have been shown to reduce accidents where they have been installed and people who keep under the speed limit have nothing to fear from them."
Mick Bennett, who is responsible for the speed cameras in the Teesside force area, said: "Nobody would disagree that speed cameras are unpopular but sometimes in order to save people's lives we do have to be unpopular.
"In Cleveland alone we have seen a 44pc reduction in crashes in two years on roads where there are speed cameras.
"In my 32 years in the police force I have never seen any other method that has been as effective.
"But I can see what MAD is trying to say . . . cameras should be located in casualty linked areas."
