British holidaymakers will dodge EU speeding fines as Brexit ends detail-sharing agreement with UK
- The UK’s departure from the EU means British-owned cars will not be sent fines
- Hundreds of thousands of Britons have been fined for speeding in recent years
- The change could mean a loss of more than £50million for French government
British drivers will escape most European speeding fines because of the end of an agreement for sharing motorists’ information.
An EU cross-border directive required the DVLA to share the contact details of those caught speeding on camera in member states.
But the UK’s departure from the bloc means owners of British-registered vehicles will no longer be sent fines from EU countries.
British drivers will escape most speeding fines in Europe means vehicles will no longer be sent fines from EU countries
It also means the DVLA will not be able to request the details of European drivers caught speeding or committing other motoring offences in Britain, The Times reported.
Hundreds of thousands of Britons have been fined in recent years, with 440,000 penalised last year for offences filmed by roadside cameras in France.
French police requested 555,847 driver details from the DVLA from January 2019 to September 2020, an average of 1,000 a day. The AA warned UK holidaymakers they were being exploited as ‘cash cows’ by French officials who feared they could lose out when Britain left the EU.
Penalties in France, the most popular destination for British drivers, range from £61 to £3,360. These can be levied up to a year after the offence.
The change could result in a loss of more than £50million for the French government if visitor numbers reach their former levels after the pandemic, according to French motoring site Caradisiac.
British drivers in the EU will still face on-the-spot fines if they are stopped by police and found to be travelling too fast.
France and Britain began sharing information about speeding offences caught on camera only last year, despite the EU directive dating back to 2015.
The UK had initially opted out of the scheme, saying the cost of the IT systems and of processing penalties would be higher than the income from foreign drivers committing offences in Britain.
The French government says it wishes to negotiate an agreement with Britain to allow fines to be sent from one country to another. So far no such arrangement has been made.
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