# End to French Speeding Fines following us home?



## V1nny (Feb 1, 2021)

For anyone interested, I saw the message below on MotorhomingFrance. 


*NO MORE FRENCH SPEEDING FINES*

One of the effects of Brexit means that from 1st January, 2021, the UK will no longer exchange driver details for offences such as speeding in France. UK drivers were the most flashed foreign drivers by radars in France in 2019 but any fines from now on have been suspended.

*MORE RADARS PLANNED IN 2021*

France has plans to introduce 1,200 new ‘turret’ speed cameras in the next year, however many of these turrets will in fact be empty, the actual radar being moved from time to time from one turret case to another. There are also plans to introduce up to 300 new radar decoy signs – signs warning of speed cameras where none are actually installed.


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## wildebus (Feb 1, 2021)

V1nny said:


> For anyone interested, I saw the message below on MotorhomingFrance.
> 
> 
> *NO MORE FRENCH SPEEDING FINES*
> ...


Do the French do on-the-spot fines for speeding and demand payment there and then  (obviously not applicable to cameras though)?


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## mariesnowgoose (Feb 1, 2021)

wildebus said:


> Do the French do on-the-spot fines for speeding and demand payment there and then  (obviously not applicable to cameras though)?



If they don't already I'll risk a fat wager that they soon will be!


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## r4dent (Feb 1, 2021)

Let us not forget that speed limits are there for safety reasons and not to raise money.

Just because you may not get a fine for speeding is no reason for doing so.


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## Deleted member 56601 (Feb 1, 2021)

wildebus said:


> Do the French do on-the-spot fines for speeding and demand payment there and then  (obviously not applicable to cameras though)?


Yes


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## Tim120 (Feb 1, 2021)

Number plate recognition at crossing points?


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## antiquesam (Feb 1, 2021)

You quite often see a gendarme hiding behind a tree with his radar gun and his mate further down the road ready to stop you. I've also seen them clustered in motorbikes at the top of a slip road onto the motorway just after a roadside radar.


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## zzr1400tim (Feb 1, 2021)

I got flashed by a radar while on holiday in Spain back in 2018 on the motorbike..
The fine letter was waiting for me on the mat when I got back home a week later. I paid it (130 euros) as didn't want my bike impounded next time I went over there if I was stopped.
The funniest was in 2012 when a few of us were riding in Germany.. a traffic cop was hiding behind a lorry with his gun in a layby and zapped us.. 
We all dutifully pulled in and presented our driving license cards for scanning and the inevitable fines.. 
One of our number (a bit of a luddite) didn't have a modern digital card license.. 
He produced his old wrinkled moth-eaten paper one from his back pocket much to the dismay of the German officer who couldn't understand any of it at all. 
As a result we were all let-off (albeit with a warning) as he was unable to process a paper license..


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## RV2MAX (Feb 1, 2021)

On the other hand  spent 2 weeks in Malaga area   not long after getting home got a speeding fine notice . quoting the hire car number I had used ,  the only problem was i had never been in the town where I had been speeding according to them  ,  nice little earner for them I suspect  , It went in the bin .


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## SimonM (Feb 1, 2021)

3 things to think about - if they want you, they will get you, but sometimes once they have you they don’t know what to do. 

I. Going along an autoroute on my way home, I noticed a police car pull out onto the road ahead of me and so I hung back, I was then waved on by a policeman and encouraged to ‘‘make progress” with a cheery wave. I half expected to get a pull, but as I was 2 up and loaded on the Busa, perhaps he was an enthusiast. 

2. I shared a ferry trip with a half dozen chaps who were on their way home from Le Mans. They told me how they were being held up by a scruffy old Renault (nothing unusual there) and whistled past only to be pulled a little way along. The cop couldn’t believe his eyes, he stopped 4 F40 Ferraris and 1 F50, all of them with radar detectors. All confiscated along with a €750 fine for speeding and €750 for the radar. It was a Ferrari meet they will remember for a long time.  Tut tut crazy car drivers 

3. Finally, September 1999, a date blazed into my memory. We had a bit of an altercation with an officious payage operator just off the Route de Soleil. When I say we, I mean something like 50 bikes. As it was Bol D’or weekend all of the autoroutes were free for bikes to get on. However we weren’t being allowed to exit halfway as that particular payage wasn’t going to be opened until 1pm. It was now 11am. We protested, she said “non”. So we broke through the barriers by lifting them - she tried to close each one we opened but couldn’t close them all fast enough. We got through. So we continued our ride through the Ardeche gorge and had a lovely time. Until exiting one village 5 of us were stopped by armed police, as in one hand up in the air and the other on the gun. We stopped. They told us we were speeding. They had no equipment with them, just a meat wagon and a couple of squad cars. We were escorted back up into the hills to the gendarmerie to meet the inspector. Now this is a bit of a long story, so I’ll cut it a little shorter. PC le flic told the inspector we had been doing 174 in a 50 (110 in a 30) and he wanted us processed. This is where it got a little confusing for one and all. We couldn’t be processed for that speed, they weren’t allowed to fine us and send us on our way, we needed to be locked up and sent to court. They couldn’t lock up 10 of us, we all had pillions, they had no room. They spoke no ‘English naturellement, and so I acted as interpreter in pidgin Franglais. The inspector spent a long time on the phone to his bosses to enquire what to do. He couldn’t keep us and couldn’t let us go. Very confusing. We were kept in the gendarmerie in a beautiful hot sunny day, the girls stayed out and sunbathed and we were left wondering what was going to happen next  - confiscation of the bikes was foremost to our minds. Common sense seemed to prevail after many hours and we were now getting rather hungry as well.  Anyway the upshot of it was we were all required to pay a “deposit” on a fine of 1000fr - CASH - we were also served with a ‘convocation’ ie a summons to appear in court to answer the charge of speeding recklessly. Once we’d paid up our 1000fr each we were sent on our way to the hotel in Cannes still a few hundred miles away. We got there well after 11pm and rather tired. I had the last laugh though, I nicked the ashtray off the inspector’s desk . A couple of months later I received a fine from France for not showing up in court for another 2500fr. Now as I was going to france a couple of times a year I paid up by personal cheque, drawn on my English bank which hopefully would mean they ended up paying any transaction fees at their end.


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## RichardHelen262 (Feb 1, 2021)

wildebus said:


> Do the French do on-the-spot fines for speeding and demand payment there and then  (obviously not applicable to cameras though)?



they certainly do, and uk plates are like a red rag to a bull, and now we have divorced them they will be even keener


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## mfw (Feb 2, 2021)

So what happens if you go back later in the year and get stopped will it be on there records could be costly - i dont know - but i dont tend to rush anyway i'm too laid back at times - shouldn't effect me


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## Snapster (Feb 2, 2021)

Written into the last agreement signed off by the Uk and EU just before the end of the year, is information on sharing driver/ vehicle details between the UK and the EU. If it isn’t in place now, I would imagine it soon might be.
Police and Gendarmes will stop you and demand payment for traffic violations and it doesn’t take much imagination to expect fines waiting patiently at border crossings as you leave the EU.
A couple of years ago we were stopped crossing the border from Spain to France while a Guardia Civil chap stood in front of the van scrolling though his computer tablet. I am guessing he was checking if we had behaved whilst in Spain. We were also sitting on a weighbridge at the time, so we’re probably weighed too. 
The whole process took about 15 minutes.
But as r4dent says, speeding is a safety issue and not something you should be trying to get away with.


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## Wully (Feb 2, 2021)

Everything is about money these days and  I’m sure the DVLA will find a way of still selling our information to foreign countries they the DVLA won’t give up on that wee cash cow easily. Maybe a reprieve for now but as soon as they can find a way of screwing us for an extra couple of quid they’ll do it. Not sure how the french would be able to follow things up but you can guarantee our country will be first in line to sell our details for a coin.


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## Wooie1958 (Feb 3, 2021)

If i speed and get flashed then subsiquently get stopped by the Gendarmerie on the next trip through say ANPR will they let me off if i tell them that i read it on here and on Motorhoming France that they can`t fine me anymore


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## RichardHelen262 (Feb 3, 2021)

More likely to get charged interest + a brexit tax


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## antiquesam (Feb 3, 2021)

Snapster said:


> Written into the last agreement signed off by the Uk and EU just before the end of the year, is information on sharing driver/ vehicle details between the UK and the EU. If it isn’t in place now, I would imagine it soon might be.


Are you sure about this? I'm sure I read that this agreement stopped.


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## jagmanx (Feb 3, 2021)

I fully expect the UK to allow imformation to be available

1 What if you simply ignore.
2 Do we collect speeding or parking fines from our Eurofriends or "Truckers" 
..probably not ! Not convinced we did before B☆☆☆☆☆


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## mark61 (Feb 3, 2021)

jagmanx said:


> I fully expect the UK to allow imformation to be available
> 
> 1 What if you simply ignore.
> 2 Do we collect speeding or parking fines from our Eurofriends or "Truckers"
> ..probably not ! Not convinced we did before B☆☆☆☆☆


 You can ignore anything through the post if you want. We just don't know what happens if/when you return to whatever country you got the fine.
The way I see it is, at least it's only a fine and not points.

I believe we do send fines to EU, collecting it is another matter.


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## REC (Feb 3, 2021)

We got a speeding fine last jan, got the paperwork on our return in may. Paid the original amount with a letter explaining we had not got the original letter
( asked for advice on here) never heard more till we got a "signed for" letter in October which was put through letter box so no record of it, asked for increased amount  due to non payment....we weren't prepared to pay again so ignored it. Drove through France waiting to be stopped but nothing! Had mislaid the receipt for registered letter with fine payment .....Never heard so assumed ok.....wrong!


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## jagmanx (Feb 3, 2021)

mark61 said:


> You can ignore anything through the post if you want. We just don't know what happens if/when you return to whatever country you got the fine.
> The way I see it is, at least it's only a fine and not points.
> 
> I believe we do send fines to EU, collecting it is another matter.


Indeed..
I got done in Germany with a very sneaky camera on a 3 lane carriageway which suddenly went fron 50mph to 30.
Paid up as you say no points and it was only about £25. The communication included a photo.
And I saw the camera flash


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## antiquesam (Feb 3, 2021)

I've just Googled the question of whether we can be fined on French automatic speed cameras and the answer is no according to two sources. Admittedly one was the Sun. I'm not likely to be worried about this as I have no intention of driving in Europe again having spent years crossing the Channel at least once a week driving for work. I gave up about two years in to the new regime where the DVLA divulged names and did panic when the new speed cameras flashed because of the vehicles height but never got a ticket.
WHOSE A GOOD BOY THEN?


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## Snapster (Feb 4, 2021)

antiquesam said:


> Are you sure about this? I'm sure I read that this agreement stopped.


Seems quite a few sources are saying that but it’s written into the agreement in black and white. I did post the relevant section either on here or MH but it was unclear ( as most government statements are) as to when or if it will be in force.


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## mark61 (Feb 4, 2021)

Snapster said:


> Seems quite a few sources are saying that but it’s written into the agreement in black and white. I did post the relevant section either on here or MH but it was unclear ( as most government statements are) as to when or if it will be in force.


 Yes, I remember you posting it.


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## antiquesam (Feb 4, 2021)

You must have posted it on the other side, a place I don't frequent.


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## mark61 (Feb 4, 2021)

Found it, I think.   

https://wildcamping.co.uk/threads/c...cle-going-to-france.84740/page-2#post-1152678


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## Snapster (Feb 4, 2021)

I won’t be bothering about speeding fines, it appears from the image below, that I am able to time travel, so I can fix any speeding before they catch me........


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## TonyEmm (Feb 5, 2021)

_*seen in the French Connexion Newspaper*_: Drivers of UK-plated cars flashed for speeding in France are no longer receiving fines in the post.
Due to full Brexit as of this month, the UK has fallen out of EU cooperation rules on exchange of driver information on speeding offences for purposes of sending out fines.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s road safety section said that fines for speeding by British drivers were suspended as of midnight of December 31, awaiting future negotiations on the point with the UK.
However “we do not yet have any perspectives as to when this work may start”, he said.
He said the previous information exchange regime was based on a 2015 EU directive which no longer applies to the UK. “Exchanges with the UK started in January 2019 and that year 444,378 fines were sent out. We don’t yet have any data for last year,” he said.
That year British drivers were flashed more than any other nationality, thought to have meant tens of millions in fines for the French government.
At present due to Brexit, the French authorities have no right to retrieve the driver’s name and address from their numberplate.
As formerly they will only be fined - on the spot - if their speeding is identified by an officer in person with a portable device. The same applies now to other offences that cameras can pick up, such as going through a red light, not wearing a seatbelt or talking on the phone.
Some other non-EU countries do have bilateral agreements on this with France, including Switzerland and Monaco.
The information exchange regime in theory went both ways, ie. including French-registered cars flashed in the UK, however previously there was doubt as to whether the UK was in fact sending fines to France.


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## wvm (Feb 7, 2021)

wildebus said:


> Do the French do on-the-spot fines for speeding and demand payment there and then  (obviously not applicable to cameras though)?


Was stopped near Lyon in 2009 doing about 90-100 (car) by a plain blue subaru, gendarmes were disgusted that we had too few euros (were on our way home) so made me follow them to a cash machine and pay them the 60 euros. He opened a money wallet to accept the cash. I swear it had well over 3000 euros in it. "Nil points" followed us home. Two years ago got flashed in northern france in the wife's 911, 90 euro fine waiting for us on the doormat.


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## Snapster (Feb 8, 2021)

wvm said:


> Was stopped near Lyon in 2009 doing about 90-100 (car) by a plain blue subaru, gendarmes were disgusted that we had too few euros (were on our way home) so made me follow them to a cash machine and pay them the 60 euros. He opened a money wallet to accept the cash. I swear it had well over 3000 euros in it. "Nil points" followed us home. Two years ago got flashed in northern france in the wife's 911, 90 euro fine waiting for us on the doormat.


Most of them carry credit card machines now so you can pay by card, there and then. Not sure if this method allows you to add tips to the amount though if you had good service.....


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## antiquesam (Feb 8, 2021)

TonyEmm said:


> _*seen in the French Connexion Newspaper*_: Drivers of UK-plated cars flashed for speeding in France are no longer receiving fines in the post.
> Due to full Brexit as of this month, the UK has fallen out of EU cooperation rules on exchange of driver information on speeding offences for purposes of sending out fines.
> A spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s road safety section said that fines for speeding by British drivers were suspended as of midnight of December 31, awaiting future negotiations on the point with the UK.
> However “we do not yet have any perspectives as to when this work may start”, he said.
> ...


That was my understanding but originator of this conversation seemed adamant


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