Please can anyone out there let me know how so many tradesmen are getting away with driving around in white vans with UK registration plates? Sometimes they have french writing on the sides detailing their profession. Sometimes they have green insurance papers in the windscreen. But all these tradesmen are obviously living full time in France. So HOW are they getting insurance for their vans which have obviously not been through the immatriculation process that some of us have conscientiously had to go through and pay for. If they are not insured they should not be on the road.
They do every now and again. My niece was done with her Irish number plate because it was recorded on the same speed camera just over the limit but not a prosecutable speed twice in eight months. Apparently they do record people over the limit and after too many breeches get them by hook or crook. Cars not re-registered get caught in the process. They seem not to have sussed that possibility out here YET!
Has anyone seen the UK news regards the same problem in the UK with vehicles being used by foreign workers/immigrants without being registered after the given time of 6 months. I would imagine if the UK clamps down then it will be a reciprocal thing here , watch this space
Paul,
Take care on that one. IF you have now declared UK residency it is actually against legislation for a UK resident to drive a car registered on foreign plates (see DVLA web site). Crazy I know, but law.
I had the a similar issue when I drove my Greek plated car back
Ignoring the insurance issues for a second...if they are 'tradesmen' and they are 'trading', that' seems to me to be quite a novelty in France.
Pity Mark. I’ve just bought a Morgan and I’d love a “MOG” plate.
Hi John,
It is impossible to choose a number as they are issued in order, now even more difficult to predict as they are allocated centrally to the requesting prefectures. You could not even expect sequential numbers if you were to register 2 vehicles at the same time as the small lapse between entering one on the computer then the other one would mean that at least a couple of other depts would get the next numbers. I know as I have done this before! At least with the old system which Shirley used the prefecture had a little leeway as they were departmental numbers - but not much!
I’m registering another car in August Shirley. Was it easy for you to choose your registration number?
Four times from four different countries. Have you tried it once yet?
Yes,I expect you right John, lets face it, even you managed it.....;o)
Any fool can navigate the “minefield”. It’s no excuse for not registering your car.
Well waded in David. Most of the tribes of the so-called Roma ethnic group are actually law abiding people who only wish to live the nomadic life they led for a couple of millennia and have the extraordinary tendency of being as legal as possible in order not to be conspicuous. Because they are treated badly more out of superstition and to a greater extent because they are different, they have learned to be that way. A few of them tend to stand out because others draw attention to them. It is a sad story that is as old as the hills and gets worse rather than better.
The super confident, arrogant ex-pats from wherever who think themselves above the law also stand out but for other reasons. I very much concur with your second paragraph because it is those who encourage them that are due the fall as well.
Your UK experience also hits the nail firmly on the head. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Hey guys this is all very interesting. There's surely a difference between our Roma chums coming from a society where they are the bottom of the heap and protected or not by whatever law their home state decrees. More honored in the breach than the observance I think. Compared with a load of UK marginales who think its a load of fun to take the piss.The people who run their vehicles on UK plates for years are not unsophisticated Roma they know what the law is and simply take the piss. In fact the Roma more likely than not run their vehicles French plates courtesy of some Romanian /French cousin.
I peronally despise the English Hill Billys who play fast and loose with these regs, more I despise the insurance agents who sell false policies.
At the same time I do object to the mass gathering of La Vie et la Lumiére who as a so called evangelical movement feel thet can take up whatever public space they choose for their meetings the while doing serious damage to communal property such as the Université de Bordeaux and insulting their female members of staff.
I kow I sound like an awful green ink writer to the Telegraph but having had fifteen years in so- called community relations in UK my experience suggests that one should never give any incoming group the opportunity to have any more leeway than the receiving group.
I make no assumptions about people, I learn about them. It is what I was trained to do. That is also why I think people who see themselves above the law, especially 'somebody else's', are totally out of order. The sentiment that somebody could be hurt by these people who are not legit has been asked earlier in the thread, thus the getting away with it issue is a subsequent question. The 'aha' used to begin a response is quite pointed. Throughout this post I have noticed how rude some people have been and others justifying directly or indirectly people getting away with it. I am not sure what the 'eureka' moment was you write of, but it came out as if you had 'got' Melissa and exposed her for a less than altruistic motive for posing the original question.
The apology is accepted too. However, I used 'popular' comparatives to draw out a straight response which I think you have more or less done, albeit you still have not come down exactly on where you stand on not registering and insuring a vehicle as the law stipulates and every driver in France by law must do. Live and let live implied you almost approve.
You have taken what I said the way I should have expected you to, sorry Brian.
I am not condoning breaking the law and certainly not in the terms you imply? It is the motivation as to the original post that was "the eureka" moment for me. In other words, I had to go through this mind-field of matriculating a car......so how come "they" get away with it?? It is that mind set which I find abhorrent and it is exactly that that I recognised in the original post and was waiting for it to come out....as it did.
FYI.....if a family of Roma moved in next door...my first move would be to try to engage. Certainly not make the assumptions that you clearly have???
Robert, you are justifying ignoring and even breaking laws. Live and let live clearly applies when somebody turns up and turns over your house, not only taking everything of value but trashing it. Those people take a bit of a risk doing that, most definitely live on the edge. Given that they often have to devise new ways of getting past cameras and other security devices they are possibly innovators and their business is flogging nicked goods which definitely makes them entrepreneurial. Or at least if I follow your chain of thought all of that applies. Now, I know full well you will say that I am using an extreme comparison, indeed I am, but given the duration of some of the evasions vehicle owners have lasted, they are probably categorically hardened offenders. I am quite certain you get the idea.
I might also ask how you would react if a group of the now well famed Romanian Roma moved in next door to you? I bet you would be wondering about the authorities turning a blind eye to all the things they allegedly do when they should all be locked up in the nearest clink. If you get my meaning that is.
So, be careful what you assume Melissa means, the truth was always there from the start.
Ah ha.....the truth is out.
I don't mean this unkindly but there are some who have a higher tolerance to risk than others, a bit like pain. While I have a little sympathy with your plight I have no beef with the few who do take a bit of a risk from time to time or rather who "live on the edge". Often, they are the innovators and entrepreneurs...."vivre et laisse vivre"....probably not correct, but you get the idea ;o))
My bugbear is more with the authorities who obviously turn a large blind eye to these unregistered vehicles being driven around the roads of France or parked up in full view outside merchants or on the roadside, day after day throughout the year.
Yes, I know you have given a lot of sound advice on motoring in France Mark. I guess my spoofer bit was about the implied legitimacy of doing CTs and continuing to run on UK plates.