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Speeding fine

Posted: Sat 30 Sep 2017 12:31
by Alison
Hi I've just received a speeding fine from end of May 2017. On the government site to pay it says the offence should have been within last 91 days. Does anyone know what I can do as it is more than 91 days? Should I just pay it while it is at low level? Any advice or experience of similar situation.

Re: Speeding fine

Posted: Sat 30 Sep 2017 14:01
by Allan
Alison wrote:Hi I've just received a speeding fine from end of May 2017. On the government site to pay it says the offence should have been within last 91 days. Does anyone know what I can do as it is more than 91 days? Should I just pay it while it is at low level? Any advice or experience of similar situation.
By Just received it, do you mean it has been waiting in a mail box or that they have only just sent it?

If it will let you pay the reduced amount then I would go ahead and do it.

Re: Speeding fine

Posted: Sat 30 Sep 2017 18:16
by martyn94
Allan wrote:
Alison wrote:Hi I've just received a speeding fine from end of May 2017. On the government site to pay it says the offence should have been within last 91 days. Does anyone know what I can do as it is more than 91 days? Should I just pay it while it is at low level? Any advice or experience of similar situation.
By Just received it, do you mean it has been waiting in a mail box or that they have only just sent it?

If it will let you pay the reduced amount then I would go ahead and do it.
As the old song goes, "I fought the law, and the law won".

Posted: Sat 30 Sep 2017 20:16
by tia
Unless you can prove that you have only just received it then you have no hope . Best to pay now before it goes up anymore as they will never forget you and will at some point freeze your account and get it that way.
Even if you can prove it you still have to pay first and then contest it. Otherwise it will continue to go up and up

Posted: Sun 01 Oct 2017 09:02
by Kate
Agree with Lisa. Pay now, appeal later if something about it was wrong or unfair.

Posted: Sun 01 Oct 2017 10:44
by Alison
Thank you. Will just pay it. The date on the letter is 14/9/17 and the offence was on 27/5 so outside of the 91 days.

speeding fine

Posted: Wed 04 Oct 2017 10:55
by john_d
I had a similar experience earlier this year - I arrived in Argeles for August to find a speeding fine from early April. Before I could do much about it a 'poste recommande' letter came with an augmented fine, but again discounted if it was paid within 15 days. If you have not yet received this letter, just pay up and hope for the best. I paid online where all the info and the amount due was clearly laid out. Although it cost me more than the original fine, the whole process was easy and much less aggressively and punitively handled than what happens in UK.

Posted: Wed 04 Oct 2017 11:50
by neil mitchell
Me too.
I arrived back 1 Oct and found a fine from an speeding ticket 14 Jul. From the Avis it looked as though I would have to pay Eur 180 but I went to the website and it was still only Eur 68. A bargain if ever I saw one and I paid it immediately.

Posted: Thu 05 Oct 2017 07:48
by tia
Doesn't matter what date you actually got flashed. The fine starts from when they sent you it in the post. Lorry drivers get fines after it has been through thzir company etc so can be 6 months down the line.
So when a British driver has a fine donthey also lose their points on their licence ( if they have a British licence of course as French it is automatic)?

Posted: Thu 05 Oct 2017 08:09
by neil mitchell
Yes, in UK it is usually an automatic 3 points. I was driving my french registered car while staying at my french home but I'm UK based and using a UK license. I'm not sure how they could apply points as well.

Posted: Thu 05 Oct 2017 12:37
by martyn94


Posted: Thu 05 Oct 2017 12:59
by Allan
Going back to the original post, I thing the issue was that the notice of the fine was more than 91 days after the offence. Alison seems to think that the government site says that the offence should have been within the last 91 days, whereas Opus seems to think they can send it whenever they like.

I cannot find this reference and if Alison is following this thread perhaps she can indicate where it is.

Having said that, I cannot see the french having a statute of limitations on speeding.

More galling is the fact that the date of the contravention is anything up to 10 days before it arrives in the post. I cannot believe that the postal service here is that bad, so they must sit on them before posting which seems a little unfair if you want to take advantage of the early payment.

These days, pretty well everyone has an email address, you would have though it not beyond the wit of man to include an e-mail address with registration details. They could then send the notice by post and at the same time let you know they have sent it.

Posted: Thu 05 Oct 2017 13:30
by martyn94
Allan wrote:
Having said that, I cannot see the french having a statute of limitations on speeding.

More galling is the fact that the date of the contravention is anything up to 10 days before it arrives in the post. I cannot believe that the postal service here is that bad, so they must sit on them before posting which seems a little unfair if you want to take advantage of the early payment.

These days, pretty well everyone has an email address, you would have though it not beyond the wit of man to include an e-mail address with registration details. They could then send the notice by post and at the same time let you know they have sent it.
If you believe this

https://www.legipermis.com/blog/2016/08 ... -de-radar/

speeding offences detected by radar don’t have to be notified at any particular time inside 12 months.

As regards notification by email, you get 15 days from mailing to pay the fine, plus another 15 days if you settle on line. There are lots of extra things they might do, but I’m not sure I’d want my taxes to pay for them. But then I haven’t had a ticket recently. If you’ve ever had to collect people’s email addresses and hope they will be up to date next time you want to use them, you will know that it’s a pain, especially multiplied by a few tens of million times.