France starts issuing speeding fines to the UK

The offences I mentioned before, public order and shop lifting are , in the UK (like speeding ) punishable by fixed penalty notice. However the difference is most people given a notice for those crimes wouldn’t bump their gums about it being income for the government

That’s interesting Nellie. Does that mean, like speeding offences, these fines means you don’t have a criminal record?

That did occur to me too.

A Fixed Penalty Notice or a Penalty Disorder notice is given for low level offences and won’t appear on a criminal record as such but the police do keep a record and certain job applications will ask you to declare them. If you don’t you will be in trouble

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Yes - it was a thought, not a proclamation!

I know someone with a UK registered car who has received several of these fines … do you or does anyone know what happens if the offender does not pay the fines?

Rubbish - as most car speedometers (from this century!) register a speed slightly higher than the actual speed - by law. An issue previously covered by one of our forum aficionados. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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In some detail as I recall

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My humble apologies - it wasn’t clear from your post which six month period you were referring to :wink:

If you had read the French press you would know that lots of digital data has been recovered from autonomous (now destroyed) speed cameras (a bit like the aircraft black box scenario) to enable the eventual issuing of the appropriate fines (i.e. up to the point they were destroyed i.e nearly 6 months late)

It transpires(!) this didn’t affect you so I would put it down to the delay in exchange of info between States - as previously explained.

You were not ‘‘just recounting your experience of getting fined’’ you were implying (rather negatively) that ‘‘the French’’ (among whom you have recently decided to live) were trying to recoup funds spent on Brexit admin and new laws for immigrants. Do you have any proof of that bizarre allegation that you consider to be ‘‘factual’’? (“It isn’t a “negative attitude”, it’s fact.”)

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Well hopefully I’ve helped clear things up for you now Jane :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Helpful… :roll_eyes:

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My guess is that non payment would initially result in the fines being increased as happens here but thereafter who knows, I doubt the French would go any further but of course if the car came to France again then ANPR would soon pick it up and they’d be a high risk of it being impounded and the driver arrested.

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Yes Stella, that makes sense and I agree. Apart from some who seem to actually believe that Carl would steal their milk as he has criminal intentions when he goes out :roll_eyes:

The placement of the cameras seems to be for revenue raising, just as Carl said and others, my friends were caught on the motorway slip roads. Not really surprising as you may have been traveling for a while around 120-130KPH then need to reduce to 70 reasonably abruptly just before increasing again to 120-130 KPH on the next stretch of motorway. Considering these link roads are single direction traffic, often double width whereas 80KPH is allowed on single carriageway roads with no barriers between oncoming traffic. Yes some of the slip roads need to be 70KPH or less as they can often be quite tight bends.
Of course these villains of society are traveling at walking pace + the speed limit! As you say the real villains take no notice of any speed restrictions.

For the multiple offenders, maybe the fines should increase a bit more each time they are caught with the fine being linked to income! That way the first offenders would begin to learn but I have to disagree with some posters, the speed changes are not always clearly shown, I put my faith in electronics to warn me and backup what my eyes are looking out for.

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Ive just received a €40 fine at my UK address for doing 99 in a 90 zone on the N10 from last October. I am going to have to be more careful in future.

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I have switched to the motorways, quicker journey and the tolls are about the same as a ticket which I will now avoid.

“The British” seem to be collectively included in the “We want to leave the EU” narrative - never mind that half of us don’t and that the behaviour of our government reflects on the reputation of the nation as a whole- so it is possibly understandable that the French authorities, or perhaps some faction of them - is exasperated with the behaviour of “The British” during the last three years, has realised that by following up speeding offences, when previously they were usually ignored - may replace some revenue which has had to be spent on new legislation which they did not ask to have to implement. It does seem coincidental to me that speeding British drivers were largely ignored until recently. If you want proof, here is a link to some sources. “The British” are seen as arrogant at the best of times. Maybe “The French” are trying to take them down a peg or two by showing them they are no better than anyone else. I don’t know if links to other publications are allowed on here but here it is anyway. I’ve really said all I intend to say on this.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20190314/the-view-from-france-britons-get-out-of-the-eu

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@Jacky47 :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes::+1:

“Maybe the French are trying to take them* down a peg or two…”

  • The British

You know, I think this ‘peg or two’ idiom is wholly inappropriate to French thinking. It’s a feudal Anglo-Saxon mind-set perpetuated by in-grained subservience to those who see themselves a peg above their social inferiors, and a peg below their betters.

Social peg-shifting mobility, the private schools, the Oxbridge elite, the monarchy, the petty snobbery of everyday life: I don’t see it’s equivalent in French mores. I have a developed sense for it, and my whiskers have never twitched once since we came to live here.

The nurturing-adult/creative-child and controlling-adult/bad-child paradigm pervades adult relationships in UK, and frames most of its institutions. All the French people I’ve met have been adults, “having set aside childish things”, and have helped me to shed my own fatuity, and develop my creativity, in a new human culture.

That for me is higher up the table of blessings than the food, the wine, the landscape, climate or any other vaunted attributes of la vie française.

As to where the money from fines goes, I imagine some of it goes to fund the emergency services, the hospital treatments, and the host of tragic human messes RTAs leave in their ghastly wake.

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Not to forget the French and plenty of others speed across the UK. Easily seen down the M20 and M2 to and from the ports.

I am always surprised of the unjust persecution that is felt when someone is caught speeding.

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Yep - the thing about speeders is that they tend to be tossers with no value on the life of others. Their own life is theirs to do with as they will but the pain they may or do cause, is irreparable.

Blaming a clamp down on British drivers speeding in France on Brexit - well, that’s just utterly bonkers!

PS: Not everything in the UK’s tiny world revolves around f***ing Brexit!!

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