A bad surprise to end the year. In mid-December, Eniss, a 26-year-old Marseillais, received a fine in his mailbox. The bill is salty: 375 euros. “I was fined by an agent in July for having consulted my mobile phone while I was looking at my GPS,” he says. The young man thinks he will receive the fine quickly, but nothing comes… until the end of last year. A delicate wait, while the amount of a fine is increased if it is not paid within forty-five days after the sending of the notice of contravention. “The problem is that I never had the initial fine, which was supposed to be 135 euros. I immediately had the increased one, which explains the amount to be paid… that if I did not pay it within the month, I was debited directly from my bank account!”, he continues.
Eniss did try to contact the Marseille fines center, without success. “They didn’t give me a reason for this first oversight. I doubt there is a problem with the address, because in the meantime I received another fine, this time for parking, which didn’t was not increased. How to explain the first? asks the young man. Part of Eniss’s entourage, residing like him in the Marseille region, also experienced this misadventure. “Several friends have directly received increased fines without receiving the initial tickets. We don’t know why, and I’m still afraid it will happen again,” he continues. Adaam, who also lives in the Marseille region, confirms: “I received a ticket at the end of December 2022 for an offense dating from January 31, 2020. Almost three years later, and directly increased!”
52 million letters per year
The case of these drivers from Marseille is not isolated: at the other end of France, in the Paris region, Maria, 21, explains that she received “a week ago” an increase of 375 euros as a penalty for not – wearing a seat belt by a minor passenger on board his vehicle. “I’ve come to be afraid to take my car,” she laughs. Near Toulouse, Emilie *, in her fifties, also found in early December in her mailbox an increased fine for speeding. And this, even though she says she was worried in September about her lack of a ticket at a police station. None of these motorists and bikers denies either their offense or their verbalization. All, on the other hand, complain about the receipt of an increased fine that they received without having had the opportunity to settle the initial ticket. They are not exceptions: throughout France, identical cases are multiplying. A phenomenon whose explanation would be to be found, in large part, by the multiplication of minutes without questioning, as well as their automation.
However, the sums are significant. There are three types of fines: reduced – which corresponds to a reduced rate in the case of prompt payment of the offense -, lump sum – if it is an act prohibited by law and punishable by criminal penalty – and finally increased if it is not paid on time. For individuals, the increased fines can reach between 7 (in the case of violations committed by pedestrians) and 375 euros (in vehicles). According to figures from the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory, 27 million traffic violations were recorded in 2021, both by municipal police, the National Agency for Automated Offenses Processing (Antai) and national law enforcement. This figure represents an increase of 8% compared to those of 2019. Most of these offenses consist (74%) of tickets related to speeding. “We send 52 million letters a year, of which 25 million are notices of fines”, tells us a source at Antai. The number of protests from motorists reporting injustice, however, is not in the agency’s reports. “They remain relatively low compared to the number of letters sent”, we are told.
Human error
However, the anomaly is not unique. Me Elfried Dupuy-Chabin, lawyer at the bar of Toulouse, vice-secretary of the Association of French lawyers in traffic law, confirms this. “Many people with fines increased to 375 euros are among my clients, she explains. These cases constitute 20 to 30% of my clientele, spread throughout the territory. This does not only affect individuals: legal persons , namely companies, are also affected, and are faced with much larger fines”. For his part, Franck Cohen, a motor vehicle lawyer for twenty years, explains that he has succeeded in having 2,000 decisions recognized in favor of offenders since the beginning of his practice. “Which represents between 200 and 300 per year, with an amplification of the phenomenon in recent years, he explains. For me, it has increased since the deployment, in 2017, of speed cameras, and an increase in tools of electronic verbalization.”
In these cases, the initial fine is sent to the address indicated on the vehicle’s registration certificate, that is to say its gray card. However, sometimes, due to a move for example, the place of residence and that reported on the registration document of the vehicle differ. This leads to loss of envelopes. “The most common explanation for these increased fines is indeed an addressing error, our source at Antai assures us. ‘a human error in the transcription of the address at the time of the report, or, quite simply, of a letter lost by La Poste.
Unknown at this address
A partnership has also been set up between the services of La Poste and Antai in these cases. “When La Poste informs us that a letter is not delivered, we consult a file – called Charade – that they have made available to us, in order to find the changes of addresses reported to the postal services, continues this source. If we find something, we return the ticket, and the payment period is restarted by three months. The motorist then does not have to pay his increased fine. But still it is necessary that the person has thought of changing his address with La Poste… In cases where no new information is provided, the Antai also records this data in a file made available to the justice system. “We know that these errors can happen, and this allows public prosecutors to have additional data in the event of a dispute”, explains our source. To avoid these losses, the State could choose to send registered mail. The public authorities also do this, in some cases by making a simple registered letter, that is to say without acknowledgment of receipt. “We have already sent letters with acknowledgment of receipt in the past, we are told at Antai. But we realized that the folds were often not removed, which allowed people to say that ‘they had never received the fine.’
How to explain, however, that a motorist does receive an increased fine, when neither La Poste nor Antai seem able to find his address? “Most of the time, taxpayers do not receive a notice of increased fixed fine, but in reality a notice of fines and monetary convictions, which result from physical arrests, explains Me Franck Cohen. The difference between the two is significant : the first comes from the Interior services, when the second comes from the Treasury, which has access to the files of the tax administration and therefore has the regular addresses of possible offenders. This could thus explain why our first witness, Eniss, was able to receive other fines at his correct address, while he had still not received the one related to his use of the telephone while driving.
Dispute is possible
However, it is possible to rectify these errors. To carry out the procedures accordingly, a deadline one month exists, or even three if the ticket was sent by registered mail, or if you have changed your gray card address without having declared it to the vehicle registration service. “The best strategy is to write, as soon as you receive the fine, to the officer who signed the ticket. When it’s not Rennes, where the Antai is located, which deals with millions of motorists, reporting is effective. From experience, the police reduce the fine to its initial amount”, explains Me Elfried Dupuy-Chabin. However, this is only possible if the offender has not yet paid his fine: a paid fine is worth recognition of the offence.
If this technique does not work, it is possible to dispute by filling out an online form on the Antai website, requiring the notice or fine reference number, its name, and the date of the notice of violation or its sending. It is also possible to follow the procedure by post, by completing the complaint form attached to the notice of increased fixed fine. “You have the possibility of contesting the enforceable title as long as the sentence is not prescribed. In contraventional matters, this duration is three years, indicates Me Franck Cohen.
After indicating that the fine has never been received, it is possible to request the situation slip”, indicates Me Franck Cohen. This document, which includes the list of fines paid or to be paid, is available at the office of the Public Treasury. , in the department where the offense took place. You must also pay a deposit, the amount of which is identical to that of the fixed fine: in the case of a fine of 375 euros, you must therefore pay 135. Two special cases exempt you from paying a deposit: if your vehicle was stolen during the offence, or if you wish to appoint another driver.” Appeal is entirely possible: it is up to the administration to prove that the taxpayer received the fine, not the other way around”, underlines Me Elfried Dupuy-Chabin. A little hope at the end of the tunnel.