Driver in western France accumulates €39,000 in parking fines
Bricklayer admitted to parking anywhere over period of five years
Fines were issued over the parking habits of three vehicles all issued in the driver’s name. Photo for illustrative purposes only
Hadrian/Shutterstock
A driver in western France has accumulated €39,000 in parking fines.
The man, who is a bricklayer, received 566 parking tickets in La Rochelle and the surrounding area over the last five years.
He is now seeking a payment plan for the mounting costs.
Tickets were issued to three different vehicles in his name, including one that he had given to a relative but that he had not updated the carte grise for so fines were sent to him.
“This man came to see me about an over-indebtedness case. He does not dispute the facts and admits to negligence. He parked wherever he could,” said La Rochelle mediator Henri Lambert to media outlet Le Parisien.
City criticised by mediator
Mr Lambert criticised the city for failing to act on the issue sooner.
“The authorities were already taking €480 from him every month,” related to the fines, he said, before he reached out to the mediator.
“Why didn't the La Rochelle services take action? Why didn't any warning lights go off... I don't understand how, with the existing IT tools, cases like this aren't detected so that the alarm can be raised and the situation be prevented from worsening so much,” he added.
The fine associated with these parking tickets, known officially as forfait post-stationnement (FPS), are set by the local council and not national authorities.
They are not treated the same as other driver infractions - including more severe parking issues such as dangerous parking - and do not incur points on a driver’s licence.
La Rochelle authorities said they were aware of the issue and confirmed that the driver had requested a payment plan for the fines, when contacted by Le Parisien.
They added that several IT programs had been used to assess parking issues, but that all ticketing had been sent to national fine agency ANTAI (Agence nationale de traitement automatisé des infractions).
The national agency can issue and collect fines on behalf of local authorities even if it does not set the rate.
