Does anyone understand French Law??

crispybug2

The answer I'm looking for isn't "No, and neither do the French!


Basically I've just received a speeding ticket for doing 98kph in a 90kph zone.
The thing is this infraction took place on the 26th of May 2012, now I've checked the date and I was in France that day but surely there is some statute of limitations here. I have no way of knowing anything about this apparent speeding after such a long time.

Can anyone assist?

Silly Old Hector

UK has 10% +3mph = 103ish kph - mmm - seems unfair

Mikey23

I thought I was flashed last year but not so far...
I spose it's a case of paying up or it will be flagged up on your passport

Stevo_666

By coincidence I got a letter from the hire car company about an 'offence' commited on holiday in France last month (they haven't told me what it is, just that they've passed my details to the French Pigs). It's probably for speeding...

This p1ssed me off so I did some poking around on the internet - looks like they can't enforce fines unless they stop you and fine you on the spot:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-police-step-up-watch-on-british-drivers-8755609.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23619783

So tell the cheese eating speed camera monkeys to 'censored erf'

As far as I know they won't have access to your passport details although not sure if they log your car reg for future reference. I was in a hire car so not a problem on that front. The only downside was the hire company is charging me a €35 'admin fee' for passing my details on - bunch of c***s. I will be checking the T&S's on the hire contract to see if I can get it back.

crispybug2

As a point of further clarifacation, I was driving a hire car.

Stevo_666

crispybug2 wrote:

As a point of further clarifacation, I was driving a hire car.

See above - you're probably in the clear unless the hire company charges you. Also the cops can't levy the fines on the credit card you supplied to the hire company.

team47b

Silly Old Hector wrote:

UK has 10% +3mph = 103ish kph - mmm - seems unfair

in france it is..

la marge de tolérance applicable aux radars fixes neufs ou réparés passe à plus ou moins 3 km/h, pour les vitesses inférieures à 100 km/h, ou de plus ou moins 3% de la vitesse, pour les vitesses égales ou supérieures à 100 km/h.

also it seems really unfair after a year has passed, you were robbed of paying promptly and getting a lower fine, bâtards!

arran77

Just ignore it, that's what Pierre would do if he got a ticket in this country

pinno

When I was in Heidelberg, I got a parking ticket. I asked the bloke at the accomodation I was staying at and even he didn't understand why I got the ticket. In a somewhat comforting statement, he added "....but then none of us know why we get parking fines. It happens all the time here".
I never paid the fine and its was 10 years ago and I have not heard anything since. I do not think I can go back to Germany. The bill with interest/late penalty charges would have escalated to a sum greater then the Greek National Debt...hmmm...maybe thats how they are going to claw the loan back.

On a sub-note and not too unconnected - The French have as many laws as us but unlike us, no one bothers abiding by them. One reason why I quite like the French.

Peddle Up!

pinarello001 wrote:

On a sub-note and not too unconnected - The French have as many laws as us but unlike us, no one bothers abiding by them. One reason why I quite like the French.

+1

arran77

pinarello001 wrote:

I never paid the fine and its was 10 years ago and I have not heard anything since.

Until you mentioned it on an Internet forum, the bratwurst munchers will be homing in on your IP address as we speak and when they find you they will get the truth out of you, zay have vays of making you talk

cornerblock

The Leu?

lucan2

Apparently, if your French speeding ticket says you were doing 98kph in a 90 limit, they will already have taken 10% off to allow for speedo error, so your recorded speed was higher.

That was what I was told when I paid my fine recently - my ticket said 73 in a 70 limit - but they know where I live :-(

VTech

I was driving through France a few years ago on the Gumball Rally and the french police impounded a few cars for the crime of driving in Convoy, they were waiting at the port.

The French have their own laws which is odd considering they push for laws to keep "us" in order !!!!

Mikey23

Love the way they do the late night road block and mass breathalyse... Been caught up in this a couple of times. The first I was legal by uk standards but in france they are much stricter so was rather nervous as my turn approached. Fortunately I was waved through as on GB plates ... A lesson learned and not repeated

clickrumble

Got a parking fine in Italy with a hire car. The hire car company notified me and told me that they would charge me a handling fee, which appeared on my credit card statement. However I didn't pay the fine. Eventually I received one of those notes from the postman and telling me that they had failed to deliver an item that required signing for. When I went the post office to collect, before the clerk handed it to me I spotted the Italian writing on the envelope. I told the clerk that I wouldn't be able to sign for it and he kindly sent it back to the sender and I haven't heard anything more from them.

Mikey23

So do you guys not have any sense of morality about being caught speeding or illegally parking in a foreign country?

4kicks

indeed. Brit being fined abroad "Flithy [*]insert derogatory food reference/[*]ers, how dare they be so sneaky"

Foreigner fined here: "Serve them right, the bloody [*]same reference/[*]"...

VTech

Mikey23 wrote:

So do you guys not have any sense of morality about being caught speeding or illegally parking in a foreign country?

Do French truckers and farmers have any morality to the english counterparts ?

I guess its like for like although I have to say that ive been treated badly by the french police, ive been made to pay and fine and smash my own radar detector on the road which pi55ed me off (road angel used to cost a fortune)

Having said that, its a proven fact that there would be less accidents if the speed limit was raised a touch on motorways (rac and aa info)

I am not for speeding, I have done it but that doesnt make it right.

Mikey23

So moral relativism again then :-)

Pross

Silly Old Hector wrote:

UK has 10% +3mph = 103ish kph - mmm - seems unfair

Here's the official ACPO guidance for the UK. It actually works out at 10% + 2mph but it is just guidance and you could theoretically be given a ticket for being over the limit by more than the tolerance on their equipment.

http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/uniformed/2013/201305-uoba-speed-enf-safer-roads.pdf

crispybug2

Mikey23 wrote:

So do you guys not have any sense of morality about being caught speeding or illegally parking in a foreign country?

It's nothing to do with morality, I was caught speeding ten or so years ago...paid my fine took my points, it's whether it's right that I'm being fined for an action that happened eighteen months and that as far as I can tell i have absolutely no chance of proving whether or not I'm guilty or not due to the massive time lapse.

sloppyschleckonds

Just ignore it until the court summons appears and they threaten to lock you in prison.

Mikey23

@ crispybug. Just doing the devils advocate stir up the thread a bit routine. Does seem well OTT but not sure what to advise. They are a funny lot and get their knickers in a twist occasionally. All the fuss about having to have your own breathalysers got shelved I think, and carrying yellow reflective jackets too if my memory serves