Does anyone understand French Law??

crispybug2
crispybug2 Posts: 2,915
edited September 2013 in The bottom bracket
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?

Comments

  • Silly Old Hector
    Silly Old Hector Posts: 573
    UK has 10% +3mph = 103ish kph - mmm - seems unfair
    All the gear, but no idea...
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    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
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,419
    edited September 2013
    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 'feck 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.
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • crispybug2
    crispybug2 Posts: 2,915
    As a point of further clarifacation, I was driving a hire car.
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,419
    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.
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • team47b
    team47b Posts: 6,424
    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!
    my isetta is a 300cc bike
  • arran77
    arran77 Posts: 9,260
    Just ignore it, that's what Pierre would do if he got a ticket in this country :wink:
    "Arran, you are like the Tony Benn of smut. You have never diluted your depravity and always stand by your beliefs. You have my respect sir and your wife my pity" :lol:

    seanoconn
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,316
    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.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • Peddle Up!
    Peddle Up! Posts: 2,040
    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 :)
    Purveyor of "up" :)
  • arran77
    arran77 Posts: 9,260
    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 :wink:
    "Arran, you are like the Tony Benn of smut. You have never diluted your depravity and always stand by your beliefs. You have my respect sir and your wife my pity" :lol:

    seanoconn
  • cornerblock
    cornerblock Posts: 3,228
    The Leu?
  • lucan2
    lucan2 Posts: 293
    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
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    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 !!!!
    Living MY dream.
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    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
    clickrumble Posts: 304
    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
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    So do you guys not have any sense of morality about being caught speeding or illegally parking in a foreign country?
  • 4kicks
    4kicks Posts: 549
    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/[*]"...
    Fitter....healthier....more productive.....
  • VTech
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    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.
    Living MY dream.
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    So moral relativism again then :-)
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,452
    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
    crispybug2 Posts: 2,915
    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
    sloppyschleckonds Posts: 8,019
    Just ignore it until the court summons appears and they threaten to lock you in prison.
    I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    @ 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

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