Tourists avoid paying speeding fines in Britain

Foreign visitors in Britain, who travel around the country in a rental car, or in their personal vehicle, are avoiding paying speeding tickets and parking fines in significant numbers, according to a report published in the Sunday Telegraph. Many of these visitors have realized that it is exceedingly cumbersome for British officials to trace the whereabouts of tourists who were fined in the UK, but then left without paying, and this has encouraged tens of thousands of visitors to avoid speeding and parking fines. In fact, on average 180,000 foreign visitors avoid paying road fines while in the UK. Out of these fines 80,000 are related to speeding and another 54,000 have to do with illegal parking of vehicles. This unresolved situation of uncollected fines has cost Britain more than GBP 10 million. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that there are nearly 140,000 cars on British roads that have been registered in other countries.

Many critics of the inability of British authorities to collect these fines point out that in France it is all but impossible to avoid paying similar penalties. Foreign drivers in France are required to pay fines as high as GBP 200 when the ticket is issued. If they fail to do this on the spot, French authorities will actually prohibit them from driving their vehicle. As such, it is not at all uncommon for police to travel up to 40km with offending drivers, so that they are able to access an ATM machine, in order to withdraw the necessary amount cash to arrange immediate payment of the traffic ticket.