Some motorists have found a trick to avoid having to pay parking fines.
It seems like a long time ago when you had to pay an 11 euro fine for failing to pay for parking. Since municipalities obtained the right to freely set the price of FPS (post-parking fees) in 2018, the amount of fines has soared. Up to 75 euros in certain districts of Paris (from 1er in the 11th)! It is therefore not very surprising to see that more and more motorists are trying to find the loophole to avoid getting caught, especially since at the same time the prices for parking for a few hours in certain cities have increased. also exploded.
To fight as best as possible against free riders (and collect as much money as possible from their backs), many municipalities have invested in cars equipped with the Lapi system. These cars crisscross the streets and take down the license plates of all vehicles in default of payment. If their performance is much higher than that of Public Road Surveillance Agents (ASVP), some fraudsters have found a trick to continue to ignore the parking meters without risking being fined. How ? By covering their car parked in the street with a tarpaulin.
This practice prevents PV sulphators, equipped with four cameras on the roof, from recording the vehicle’s license plate number. It is therefore impossible to trace its owner. Is this legal? If the Highway Code stipulates that each motorist must drive a vehicle with readable plates – at the risk of having to pay a fixed fine of 135 euros – nothing prohibits putting a tarpaulin on their car. This is also a practice that would be easy to justify in winter when you want to protect it from the cold and therefore from frost.
The fact remains that this method is not infallible. Indeed, if more and more cities are using cars equipped with cameras to spot bad payers, there are still a large number where it is municipal agents who are responsible for checking whether motorists pay for their parking. And nothing prevents ASVPs from lifting the tarpaulin to check that a valid parking ticket has been placed on the dashboard. Proof that it is perhaps even more difficult to deceive a human than a machine.