Someone I know had a visit from the Police in the last few days.

They were investigating a motoring offence

The offence in question was not committed in the UK but due to a reported incident in September 2004 at 3.00am in the morning.

It is suggested by the French Police that the vehicle was photographed by a speed camera doing 174 kph on a 130 kph speed limit.

There appeared to be 2 other cars from the Cannonball 2004 who were being investigated and several others from the May 2004 Gumball doing speeds up to 225 kph and driving in a manner which could cause death or injury.

The file was approximately 2" thick with documents including photographic evidence .

It appears they have asked the British Police to investigate these drivers and to get a statement from them concerning the alleged offence which they make clear is purely voluntary and there is no obligation to give statement or comment.

The real irony of this situation is that those of us who know the person in question know that he has a reputation for not being a particularly fast driver & is certainly incredibly safe , yet he gets allegedly caught doing 25 mph over the limit. Unfortunately France is in the midst of a politically inspired clampdown on its excessive death rate of 7,000 road deaths per annum and it appears that there is strong evidence to prove that they are targetting the 12 million British motorists that drive through France each year.

I think the fact that he drives a rather exotic Italian car capable of over 200 mph & was on the Cannonball is making him a good Pr example for the French to hold up if they get a conviction.

Its also disheartening that our Police spend our Taxes investigating on behalf of a foreign force a car that was caught on camera at 25 over the national speed limit at 3 in the morning, We had an attempted robbery recently and yes you can guess it, the Police werent interested

After my recent fall out with the police like you they seem remarkable useless!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5057884.stm

No matter where you go they will find you, fines are becoming big business:mad:

I wonder how much its costing TFL to investigate those, much more than they are recovering at a guess.

Mental note made for trip to the Ring, although not much of France will be visited I think. I was told by a German chap that the Dutch are bad too - will nab your car as well. :eek:

Mental note made for trip to the Ring, although not much of France will be visited I think. I was told by a German chap that the Dutch are bad too - will nab your car as well. :eek:

Dutch are bad but there police cars are slow ;)

France is generally OK at night & lunch times, where they tend to have radar traps is on Motorway Bridges & they hide it right on the edge of the bridge, If I see a bridge with an up ramp (it will have a down ramp)I always back off just in case. Traps can also be found on long straight rural roads leading into villages, Radar detectors are illegal but worth taking, just whip it off the screen at all toll booths, in towns etc, The fine if caught is high, about

Dutch are bad but there police cars are slow ;)

Some might be but the Dutch also have Porsches -some marked and some plain.

Sal

Some might be but the Dutch also have Porsches -some marked and some plain.

Sal

Phew, thankfully it was something like a Passat I passed at ??? mph, I certainly didnt spot any Porshes or similar quick cars

We had an attempted robbery recently and yes you can guess it, the Police werent interested

SORRY in advance for taking it off topic a bit... But that's quite strange... Robbery is a priority offence almost always getting a 'grade 1' or 2 response down in the county I live in (thats either blues & twos or within 20 minutes depending on the chances of catching somebody) - less if the victim has gone home or something before reporting it, which makes sense as descriptions can be taken over the phone and then an area search can take place, or not if there's been a serious time lapse. Robbery is especially serious, more so than a standard theft, as it's a theft with the threat of or perception of violence and obviously violent crime is a big no-no!

Burglary will sometimes get a slower response than robbery (put simply burglary is theft from a building and robbery is theft from a person with threat of violence or fear of violence) the reason being that robbers are easier to catch than burglars! Burglary suspects are generally caught once and then linked to other crimes by way of forensics left at other crime scenes - DNA, footprints, fingerprints etc. Robbers are often caught in the vacinity of the offence because of the fact that most robbers commit their offences on foot (punching somebody and then nicking mobile phone & legging it, for example).

The police don't have the resources that they require, and are always asking the government for more money but it never comes (so much for Blairs promises), and as a result they are often left in the unfortunate position of having to limit the response that they can provide on an 'immediate' basis to incidents that are less likely to result in a quick arrest so that they can concentrate on those offences where the chances of catching people are greater. This doesn't mean that they aren't interested in all offences that make people feel scared, violated or whatever, just that they are forced to hit targets with their limited resources.

There are very few police officers who aren't interested in doing their best to help victims of crime and they often feel as let down as you, in my experience.

For what it's worth, if you move to Surrey you can often hear the police helicopter overhead searching for robbers and burglars - they'll use the chopper for anything if there's a chance of catching somebody!

I was told by a German chap that the Dutch are bad too - will nab your car as well. :eek:

Once they see your lpg installation, I think the last thing they'd want to do is impound it - they'll want it as far away from their country as possible

Chris

Oh, btw, it doesn't half irritate me that we can have penalty points applied to our British license for speeding in France but the same doesnt work for French speedign in the UK :(

What happens if you are speeding near the border, police come after you, but you make it through the border and into the neighbouring country? Surely the police from country #1 have no juridstiction (sp) over the border in country #2?

Just thinking out loud really but I do wonder about this what with no customs tollbooths (and thus no reason to stop) on many EU borders.