My son got a speeding fine while driving my car in France - is my licence at risk?

Reader question: My son incurred a speeding fine using my car while visiting from the UK. It seems I should lose a licence point. How do I stand legally?

Hopefully your car was insured for third-parties, or your son in particular, to drive it.

In France the insurance is attached to the vehicle, not the driver, so in principle you can lend it and it remains insured, however policies often include clauses about to whom you can lend and under what conditions.

Read more: flashes return on French speed cameras

Speeding fines are sent to the person registered as the car’s owner in the carte grise. If this happens, you should not pay the fine, as that equals accepting the offense.

Instead, if you do not wish to accept it (and the lost point) you need to contest it, which you can do in writing using the form that is sent with the fine notice, which you should send a lettre recommandée avec avis de reception to the address indicated. 

Alternatively, do it at the Antai website, by clicking Contester voter amende. You need details from the fine including fine number (numéro d’avis) and a copy of the car’s registration document.

If you select box 2 to say you had loaned the car, you are asked to insert details of the driver. In this case a fine notice will be sent to him in the UK. If he does not pay, it is unlikely the French authorities will chase up the fine or pass the matter to UK debt collectors, but it is at his own risk.

Driving avocats say, legally, you are not obliged to ‘denounce the driver’, and in this case you should select box 3 to say you contest the reality of the offence, then provide reasons saying ‘I was not at the wheel that day’, if possible along with any evidence that you were somewhere else.

In some cases, the matter will go no further; if not you will have to attend a police court to explain yourself. 

If it accepts there is proof you were elsewhere, you will have neither fine nor point; otherwise as the registered driver a fine remains payable, which may be higher than the original one, but avocats say you will not lose a point because the court will not be able to prove you were at the wheel.