Speeding fine: what to do about UK driving licence?

[Loiseau]

I arrived at my residence secondaire the other day to find that I had received a contravention notice for speeding (76kph in a 70kph area, in case you are all thinking what a speed-hog I must be!) in the little French-reg "voiture secondaire" that I keep at my cottage.  I speedily paid it on line, luckily just squeaking into the time-frame to catch the lower amount of the fine.  All well and good so far.

The contravention said this was an offence involving 1 point being deducted from my licence. 
French friends have told me that they would not have to send their licence in to have points deducted; but that it is done by the police on their computer.
Now as I am UK-resident, obviously my licence is a UK one, and does not bear the same address as the registration address of my French-reg car (where the contravention was addressed to).    If the police cannot find my licence in their French database, I hope they won't think I was driving without one.  Should I inform somebody, and if so, whom?

Does anyone know how they can take 1 point off a clean UK licence, anyway? 

Angela

[Clair]

There is no record of your UK licence on the French system, so the penalty point cannot be deducted.

You do not need to contact anyone about it.

[Anton Redman]

I believe the system holds the points against the car if there is no French license and that if you collect more points you may receive a visit but ont point simply drops off  after two years. As above no need to do anything else save become paranoid about speeding.

[Théière]

The system is soon going to change I heard on the radio the other day. Major countries of Europe will be sharing the data.

So if you speed in the UK you get points, do you think you will have to speed in France to get them taken off again [:D]

[AnOther]

[quote user="Anton Redman"]I believe the system holds the points against the car if there is no French license[/quote]Hmm, be interesting to have that confirmed or debunked.

Regarding one point, my understanding is that, providing no further offences have been committed, a

single point falls off a French licence after 1 year not

two. Further offences within that year set the clock back to zero and

all points then remain for 3 years. I seem to recall reading that

consideration was being given to reducing the period to 6 months for

trivial offences but can't recall where.

[AnOther]

[quote user="teapot"]

The system is soon going to change I heard on the radio the other day. Major countries of Europe will be sharing the data.

So if you speed in the UK you get points, do you think you will have to speed in France to get them taken off again [:D]

[/quote]Presumably referring to THIS but it is just the adoption of a proposal and probably at least a decade away from implementation.

[JeanS]

In April returned from our house in 36 I was caught in a mobile speed check. I was driving a UK registered car.At the time I was a bit distracted beause I was looking for somewhere to stop because my mum was having ab asthma attack. The gendarme insisted in taking my licence.So I handed over my photo licence - after completing many forms, they let me drive on. I called the DVLA - they confirmed that the French police have no powers to endorse a UK licence. I eventually got my licence back, they sent it to my French address 4 days after they had taken it. So beware Saturday mornings onthe main road into Tours.

[suein56]

[quote user="Clair"]There is no record of your UK licence on the French system, so the penalty point cannot be deducted.

You do not need to contact anyone about it.

[/quote]

My OH received a speeding fine in our early days here - the fine was paid online and we never heard another thing about it. It wasn't til someone on the forum asked about the points situation in the case of a UK licence that I dug out the demand, scrutinised it and saw that it did indeed say on it about deduction of a point. But as I said we heard nothing more, probably because that was OH's only infringement and it 'dropped off' the screen after a year.

Sue

[TefkaC]

The system over here is as follows, you have 12 points to start with, for committed offences these are deducted until you lose all and then your license. The record is kept on the prefecture data base so not actually on you license. For a 1 point speeding offence this is on your license for 1 year, regardless of UK  or French license. My point is being looked after in Poitiers.......[:$]

Charlie......[:D]

[Loiseau]

Yes, I knew about the 12 points being deducted in France v 6 points added in UK.  In fact by that token it would seem logical that I should incur only half a UK point. [;-)]

 

[quote user="teapot"]

... if you speed in the UK you get points, do you think you will have to speed in France to get them taken off again [:D]

[/quote]

[:D]    [:D]    [:D]

 

Thanks for the replies, all.

Angela

[Patf]

But what happens if, after incurring points in France, but holding a UK license, you change to a french one within the year? Will they then deduct these points from your new french license?

[bigears]

hi

I'm interested in the original post as we have 2 french reg vehicles and one uk reg vehicle. We too are uk resident and am aware things could get difficult if the gendarmes insist on a change of licence (after an offence that attracts points) and the prefecture indicates its not possible for a non french resident to exchange. I drive so carefully in france because of this very situation. It could be a bad suituation to find yourself in. Has anyone found themselves in this hole.

[JeanS]

Further to my post of 20 July. I received a recorded delivery letter to our house in France yesterday - I have to pay 282€ within 30days. If I don't pay then the fine goes up to 1500€. I've read the letters all ways and any way up. Still can't see how they can enforce the one months ban previosly given. Guess who's been keeping to the speed limit?

[Dog]

If you have a non French licence just pay the fine immediately online. It is a stealth tax keeps bureacrats in pensions.

[Duncandst]

For 282 euro's you must have either ignored the previous tickets or have been really over the limit. Either way you have a choice, contest the fine and risk a more punative sanction or pay up, by the way a certain British Grand Prix driver got caught speeding last year and was fined, banned and had his car impounded, the ban was adjusted so he could continue his Racing career this year.

Having lived in France since 1981 I like the current attitude to speeding as before the advent of Speed Traps and cameras it was dangerous to drive here and I normally drive large cars (Landrover Discovery and BMW) they just have to take it a bit further and enforce the no mobiles rule. Showing my age I can remember how my friends in France complained about the seatbelt rule and the dreaded controle technique when that arrived (I only drive around the villlage was their excuse for having poor brakes and lights adjusted with wine bottle corks). I actually find it better to drive here in France than in the UK which is sad and just shows how far the UK driving attitude has changed for the worse since I started working and living abroad.

[Weegie]

[quote user="Loiseau"]

Yes, I knew about the 12 points being deducted in France v 6 points added in UK.  In fact by that token it would seem logical that I should incur only half a UK point. [;-)][/quote]

Not so.  12 points in UK also. Just added instead of subtracted.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/EndorsementsAndDisqualifications/DG_4022550

Unless you are new driver?

[Loiseau]

Sadly NOT a new driver by any stretch of the imagination, Weegie!

But thanks for the update on the number of UK points.  Having had the good fortune not to have lost any for about 35 years, I was not as up to date as I should have been.

 

Angela

[AnOther]

[quote user="JeanS"]I've read the letters all ways and any way up.

Still can't see how they can enforce the one months ban previosly

given. Guess who's been keeping to the speed limit?[/quote]I note from your earlier post that that you made no mention of a ban and if you don't tell the whole story then the advice you receive may not be accurate.

I can't

claim any 1st hand experience so don't know what the procedure is but I'm sure that if the French wanted to ban you from driving in

France then there will certainly be a way for them to do it. It may be something as simple as a recorded letter informing you of it but the fact that they don't actually take your UK licence off you and you still hold it will not override it.

As I say, no personal experience, but ignoring the legalities of it I thought that if the Gendarmes took your licence from you on the spot then that was effectively a ban there and then because of course you cannot drive without a licence. Evidently this is not so if they allowed you to drive on and perhaps its a case of only a court being empowered to impose a ban so presumably they gave you some sort of receipt for your licence which permitted you to continue which kinda defeats the point of confiscating the licence of a foreign national in the first place.

The fact that they sent it back to you so quickly suggests that the Gendames overstepped themselves and indeed had (and have) no legitimate authority to confiscate it in the first place and were perhaps following the routine for a Franch driver. It certainly wouldn't be the first time they have proved themselves ignorant of the law [blink]

[Sunday Driver]

The gendarmes were correctly following standard procedure, regardless of the nationality of the driver.

In cases where the posted speed limit has been exceeded by 40kph or more, they are required to retain the drivers licence for up to 72 hours during which a decision will be made regarding further enforcement, ie fine, driving ban, confiscation of the vehicle.

If no decision is made within this timeframe, then the licence is returned to the driver, without prejudice to any subsequent enforcement decision.

The prefect or his authorised delegate may impose a driving ban of up to six months.  In the case of foreign licenceholders resident abroad, the driving licence is sent to the appropriate Embassy for forwarding to the original licencing authority who then return the licence to the holder. The ban remains on record in France and if the licenceholder is caught driving here whilst the ban is in force, then he can be arrested and prosecuted.

 

[AnOther]

So in the case in point then the person was not banned from the time of licence confiscation but in return for it presumably given some sort of receipt/permit to produce if called upon to, otherwise how could they be permitted to drive on.

If a ban is subsequently imposed will they send the notification to the persons UK address on the licence ?

[Sunday Driver]

Retention of a licence is not a ban as such, but merely a temporary withdrawal of driving rights pending an enforcement decision in serious cases. The driver is given an avis de retention showing the address of the office from which they can recover the licence after the statutory period.  Once a licence has been retained, the holder may no longer drive on the road until it has been restituted.  As you say, we don't have the whole story so it's difficult to comment on why the person in question was allowed to continue to drive.

If a ban relates to a foreign licenceholder who does not live in France then I expect the notification would be sent to their home address as shown on the licence. 

 

 

[JeanS]

I thought I did mention the ban in my first post. The gendarmne who stopped me first said I couldn't drive anymore and took my licence - however because I had no other way of continuing my journey, they let me on my way but not before copius amount of forms had been completed - I think if I'd not said that I had a French house, it may have been different. They just could not understand when I requested all correspondence to be sent to my UK address. They even wanted my father's details and he's been dead for 32 yrs.Still I've now paid up and hopefully it will be the end of it. I now keep to the limits and save fuel. As other posts - I enjoy driving in France, especially where we are - no traffic, the only hold ups we have arfe when the local farmers move their cows from one field to another.

[Sunday Driver]

I suspect that your mother having an attack at the time may have led the gendarmes to excercise some forbearance in allowing you to continue driving, otherwise you'd have been grounded.

Your mention of a 1,500€ fine suggests you were done for a grand excès de vitesse.  What was the speed limit and what speed were you doing at the time - what does it say on the ticket?

 

 

[JeanS]

I was 125kmh in a 90kmh I'd was just off a dual carriageway. All the bits of paper I was given at the time are in tUK. I've paid up and now drive within the speed limits. I just wonder whatwould have happened if I'd not had a French address.

[BJSLIV]

I recall seeing an item on TF1 news where a UK tourist speeding south on the motorway was left stranded.

The only person in the car who could drive had his licence impounded due to excess speed.

They were taken to a hotel to await the arrival of a relative from the UK!