I've just recieved a few French Speeding Tickets.

htrj

On a long drive from Marseille to Paris to catch a flight I realised I was going to struggle to make the flight I was booked on so I got my foot down. I just made the flight but yesterday I received 4 speeding tickets from the French Authorities. 3 tickets for e45 and 1 for e90, more if I dont pay within 46 days.

I know ive set french cameras off when driving a UK reg'd vehicle and didnt hear anything from them but this was a hire car so I wonder if the fine is enforceable. Hertz have charged me an admin fee for passing my info on to the Gendarmes.

Also, the information I have read about this on the net is slightly outdated so I wonder if anyone knows of any amendments to EU and UK law that allows these tickets to be enforced.

What would you do?

worried_jim

Interesting one, if it was my own car I would ignore but as it is a hire car it would be far too easy for Hertz to just stick it onto your credit card bill. I am interested to see what others will say.

agrinnall

I can see no reason why the fines can't be enforced, the question is really whether the French authorities think it is worth doing. You may indeed find that Hertz pay them and charge your card, and I doubt if you'd be successful challenging that.

Of course, the old adage "if you can't do the time (or in the case, pay the fine) don't do the crime" comes into effect here, you deliberately broke the law so the cost of doing that is the fines that you've been hit with. In fact, the fines are a pretty cheap price to pay, had you done the same in the UK you'd have lost your licence. I'd just pay it and use it as a lesson to leave more time to catch your flight on your next trip.

zappahey

I guess it depends on how often you go to France and what action the Gendarmes will take if you get stopped and they discover you have 4 outstanding tickets.

I got an Italian one some years ago; I ignored it and heard nothing more but I didn't really have any expectation of returning to Italy.

BTW, how much did Hertz charge you for the admin fees?

Itsgottabedone

Yes - the fine is enforcable. French authorities have fined Hertz, being owners of the vehicle. You have signed a contract with Hertz agreeing that you are responsible for any fines incurred, and same contract will doubtless have a clause advising that Hertz will charge an admin fee for collecting the fines from you.

htrj

This is a very different view from other posts ive seen on similar topics but there's nothing to say those posts are right, and many were from before 2012 referring to an imminent change in the law. Has the law been changed since then?

Hertz have charged £30 for passing my information on to the authorities.

Aretnap

Interesting thread in another place

Click me

Seems there is legislation allowing foreign fines to be enforced by the UK courts; whether the process would routinely be used for the sake of a speeding ticket is another matter, and there may be some ECHR related hurdles highlighted in that thread to overcome.

Also a possibility that Hertz would pay the fines and then bill your credit card but that would depend on how French law works and your hire agreement with Hertz. It would not happen in relation to a UK speeding ticket.

Not paying could also cause you problems if you go back to France any time soon and they connect your passport to the fines.

thenudeone

Itsgottabedone wrote: »

Yes - the fine is enforcable. French authorities have fined Hertz, being owners of the vehicle. You have signed a contract with Hertz agreeing that you are responsible for any fines incurred, and same contract will doubtless have a clause advising that Hertz will charge an admin fee for collecting the fines from you.

I have no doubt the administration fee for processing the tickets can be reclaimed by Hertz, but that is a very different thing to the ticket itself.

I cannot comment on how the French system works; but in the UK the courts / fixed penalty offices can't just force the owner to pay. There has to be an identified driver who accepts the fixed penalty as an alternative to court, and agrees to the addition of points to their licence. If they don't have a UK licence, a record will be created to record their points. If the driver refuses to accept the penalty they will be taken to court and any fine can be enforced as any other fine against the person. If the owner/ keeper refuses to name the driver, the owner will go to court for refusing to name the driver.

If (with good reason) the driver can't be readily identified or contacted or cannot realistically be taken to court (for example a foreign driver of a UK hire car) then the matter is simply dropped. Even if the driver's employer, friend, family member, friend, customer or supplier offers to pay, it won't be accepted. No-one has to pay the fine, because there is no-one against which the penalty can be recorded.

The french, of course, may do things differently.

GolfBravo

Itsgottabedone wrote: »

Yes - the fine is enforcable. French authorities have fined Hertz, being owners of the vehicle. You have signed a contract with Hertz agreeing that you are responsible for any fines incurred, and same contract will doubtless have a clause advising that Hertz will charge an admin fee for collecting the fines from you.

The French authorities have not fined Hertz, and can't fine them. Hertz have provided the driver details to the authorities, and have charged the driver €30 admin fee - as far as they are concerned they are no longer involved in this. The only way Hertz could be fined is by failing to provide the driver details to the authorities.

Since the British Government did not opt in to the European Cross-Border Enforcement Directive (back in 2010? I think) the French authorities can't enforce these fines on British soil, they are just hoping to get some money from the OP. However, if the OP ever gets pulled over by the French police in France then he/she could be in real trouble - they have on the spot cash fines in France, and the police would most likely have a record of the unpaid fines.

If I remember correctly, the reason why the British government did not opt in to this EU directive is that once a EU vehicle owner receives such automated speeding fine in the mail they have no defence, can't legally challenge it, and can't even name the vehicle driver - it is a seriously flawed system IMHO.

HappyMJ

I'd ignore them myself.

mattyprice4004

I'd not be silly and speed all the way through France like a tool.

What's the need to put lives at risk just to make a flight?