Coming back up the A1 from Paris to Calais last week, I was pulled over by mr plod and relieved of 135 euros for a tacho offence on the M1 at Tibshelf services on 08/03/2010. I was told the fine would be 750 euros if not paid in cash there and then. Although I got a receipt and my company paid, I can’t help feeling I have been done over and the police have pocketed the cash. I am very new to euro driving so can you tell me, Is this standard practice and can I also be done again in the U.K for the same offence. I do have a copy of the reciept in the cab.
You’ve probably been mugged, this bit alone suggests this might be the case.
Jonni c:
I was pulled over by mr plod and relieved of 135 euros for a tacho offence…
…I was told the fine would be 750 euros if not paid in cash there and then.
What was the offence?
Insufficiant break, Guilty as charged guv.
Welcome to the gendarme, they prey on british trucks and have the view that british drivers are easy meat.
We should have left them to the germans, the cheese eating surrender monkeys
Jonni c:
can I also be done again in the U.K for the same offence.
Or the other way around - can the driver be done by VOSA here and then in every other EU country they are going through ?
They told me I was a European driver so the rules applied in every EU country. The offence was that I took a 30 minute break then a 15 minute break. I know I was wrong but do they have the right to impose a fine?
I would say you have not in this case been mugged, bit in red below.
A Member State shall enable the competent authorities to
impose a penalty on an undertaking and/or a driver for an
infringement of this Regulation detected on its territory and
for which a penalty has not already been imposed, even where
that infringement has been committed on the territory of
another Member State or of a third country.
Keep the receipt handy and you should not be done by VOSA in the future, or by a different Gendarme in France next week. Note the bit above in blue.
If the police have downloaded the information on your digicard, then there will now be an entry on your card logging this event (a pictogram of a head with a cap with the date and time). You cannot be done again for any offence committed before this time.
If you’re still on an analogue tacho, then the copper should have stamped the back of the offending card (with an official police stamp) and signed and dated it. You cannot then be redone again for this offence.
What the hell are English coppers at Tibshelf doing collecting fines in Euros, anyway?
I was under the impression that the UK still uses those quaint, old fashioned Pounds.
Inselaffe:
What the hell are English coppers at Tibshelf doing collecting fines in Euros, anyway?
I was under the impression that the UK still uses those quaint, old fashioned Pounds.
I think what he meant was the offence took place on the M1 on the 8th of March and he was nicked for it in France last week. 
muckles:
Inselaffe:
What the hell are English coppers at Tibshelf doing collecting fines in Euros, anyway?
I was under the impression that the UK still uses those quaint, old fashioned Pounds.I think what he meant was the offence took place on the M1 on the 8th of March and he was nicked for it in France last week.
Note to self: Read the bloody post properly in future 
Cheers, fella 
I think this is wrong If I break the law in one country then it’s upto that country to fine me, not the country that see’s it first, thats like a frech copper coming over to england and setting up a mobile speed trap it is not his juristiction so nothing to do with him all he should be able to do is report you to say Vosa in this instance, and what if he had already been done in the uk for it does he have to pay again and again as he crosses borders!!! it’s an absolute liberty
Urban Myth Alert
This one is doing the rounds over here:
Drivers who have infringements on their cards are grassing themselves up to the Polizei, paying the German fine and having their cards stamped so that they cannot be done again for these offences, before they swan off to France, Spain, etc where the fines would be much higher
Inselaffe:
Urban Myth AlertThis one is doing the rounds over here:
Drivers who have infringements on their cards are grassing themselves up to the Polizei, paying the German fine and having their cards stamped so that they cannot be done again for these offences, before they swan off to France, Spain, etc where the fines would be much higher
I was thinking maybe it would be better to get fined in certain countries than risking getting a much larger fines elsewhere.
sankev13:
…and what if he had already been done in the uk for it does he have to pay again and again as he crosses borders!!! it’s an absolute liberty
You missed the bit in blue in the quote I posted from the regulations.
similar thing happened to me,got hit with a 140euro fine down in dijon for driving over my 4 and a half by 10 mins in barnsley the previous week 
they stamped the back of it though
sankev13:
I think this is wrong If I break the law in one country then it’s upto that country to fine me, not the country that see’s it first, thats like a frech copper coming over to england and setting up a mobile speed trap it is not his juristiction so nothing to do with him all he should be able to do is report you to say Vosa in this instance, and what if he had already been done in the uk for it does he have to pay again and again as he crosses borders!!! it’s an absolute liberty
This isnt the case though. Jonni C took the wrong amount of break at Tibshelf on the 8th March of a 30 + 15 which he admits he was bang to rights for.
We run under EU rules and regulations which are uniform throughout the land. If Jonni C had used article 12 of those regulations, that may have prevented the French fine or gone some way to mitigate it. It is the reason we now carry 28 days plus the current record with us and do not have to hide them in our underpants in a foreign control