Speeding In Germany

[Allen774]

Are speeding tickets earned in Germany enforceable in the uk ?.A friend of ours has recieved a notifacation to his home address in northhampton,it had is photo behind the wheel of his hire car doing 120km in a 100km zone,the notifacation was in German.

Does anyone know the legalities.

 

[JTQ]

Read somewhere that it must also be written in English and received within 28 days of the offence; so worth checking that this is right.

 

[Lutz]

On the whole, speeding tickets issued abroad and sent to your home address can be safely ignored. Only where bilateral agreements between two countries regarding their enforcement exist, would it be wise to pay up. To the best of my knowledge, Germany has such an agreement only with Austria. There are plans to extend the agreement throughout the EU, but this has, as yet, not gone past the proposal stage.

However, you mention that your friend was driving a hire car. In this case, if he does not pay, the ticket will go back to the hire company and they will pay and recoup the costs from him. Presumably the rental was paid by credit card so they will bill the credit card, the details of which they will still have on file. This has happened to me (not that I was speeding, I may add. The car was picked up by an employee of the car hire company and taken from the hotel to the office and he was obviously speeding. However, it proved too difficult for me to prove at such a distance in a foreign country, so, for the sake of the 15 Euro fine, I coughed up and left it there.)

 

[Allen774]

Thank you Lutz I will pass the information back to my friend and for him to expect a further reduction from his credit card

 

[Trevor_374472828]

Hello, Please inform your friend that although nothing may happen to this ticket yet, if your friend goes back to Germany and heaven forbid gets stopped and they do a check on the vehicle he will find himself in deep trouble, they have a very good collative system and everything is recorded. I am a retired Kent Motorway Patrol Officer and the same system is worked by the French, remember that they (French Police are in Dover Docks and the Folkestone Channel Tunnel Terminal)sometimes it is better to cough up and thats the end of it. The other way is dont speed or if you do dont get caught

 

[Markwant_5113193]

Hi Allen,

Last year my father got a speeding ticket for driving too fast on German motorways. He didn't pay or react. After 1 month he was asked to appear in court in Germany... So eventually he paid more than he originally should have + extra costs of driving to Germany. We are living in Holland; I don't know if the situation is different for habitants in UK. But I thought I should mention it to you...

Greetings,

pat

 

[Lutz]

I agree that is a case of whether you've got the nerve not to react, even when asked to appear in court, but from all accounts, no further consequences are to be expected if you ignore that too. Whether what Trevor says about the risk of being caught if you ever try to return to the country which issued the ticket in the first place is true, I don't know. However, if you re-enter by car it is certainly unlikely as there will be no record of entry, at least in those countries which do not check documents at their land frontiers, like Germany.

 

[Trevor_374472828]

Hello, I appreciate that you are not checked nowadays when crossing European borders, but like I said the Germans are very good at collating information, if you re-enter the country I agree you will not be checked BUT if like the first time you exceed the limit or get caught parking where you shouldnt, on checking the reg number the previous misdemeanor will rear its head and will be dealt with along with the present one