This may seem a strong title for a thread, but this is what has just happened to a couple of English friends, who have lived nearby for a few years - their French is not all that good.
They were travelling to Pezenas, and as they had just passed a village, 2 gendarmes waved them down - as well as the car following them. They duly obliged, and were told they were booked since she (in passenger seat) was not wearing her seat belt. This was blatantly untrue, as she religiously (and he as well) wears her seatbelt at all times, and pointed at the seatbelt. The gendarme says "Ah, yes, you are wearing it NOW, but as you passed through the village, my colleague, who was looking with his binoculars, saw that you were NOT wearing it!" She protested as much as she could, as she was, quite rightly, outraged. Nothing doing. In the end, they decided to comply and pay the 90 euros spot-fine, as they could not bear the thought of going to court and fighting this, since it would have been their word against the gendarmes...
Naturally I was absolutely outraged by this story. The two friends in question are probably the cleanest, most trustworthy people I know (!!) and it seems so appalling. I was unable to provide any answer about what one could do in such a case, except these 2 thoughts:
*Write a letter of complaint to the "procureur" i.e. make a formal complaint.
*Get the "Mediateur de la Republique" (there is one per departement) onto the case.
All this, knowing that there is no proof one way or the other (no photo, no evidence), and that it is their word against that of a sworn state official...
I also wonder what a French person would have done. My friends' car, by the way, has a French, local number plate, so they could not have been pulled up for just being foreigners.
And finally I wonder what they booked the next car for. Apparently it was an elderly man (French) who looked utterly confused.
Did anything similar ever happen to you or anyone you know, in France? (I read of similar stories in Spain!)
Does anyone have any idea what could have been done about it?
Now I have cynical thoughts about quotas coming up, like "How much money are we gonna pull in today?"

Whilst reading that..... a thought popped into my mind and you indeed mentioned it at the bottom. One wonders???

Not many french are speeding these days of high fuel prices and so that lucrative market has gone off the boil me thinks.

Your friends have to complain, there may have been many more people do the same and thus it would be investigated. And seeing them through binoculars eh? Moving car / shadows / refelctions...... that cant be easy to spot a seat belt or not.

However i did complain about a 'bent' lawyer and since have failed to find another to take the case.

Today I told this story to a French friend of mine, who used to work on some kind of legal advice capacity. She was adamant that without evidence/proof, my friends should NOT have been booked, and probably should have refused to pay (which would take some bottle!). She says that even now, they should absolutely write to the Procureur de la Republique to report it, with all the details (time, place, receipt photocopy - if there is one).

As for speeding tickets, funnily (just a way of speaking!) enough, my husband just got pulled over a week ago for "speeding" on a secondary road that he knows very well. I was not in the car at the time, so I can't say if he was really speeding (all I can say is that he definitely would NOT have been speeding if I had been in the car with him, as I am totally paranoid about speeding tickets, and about car travel generally, as I feel that all other drivers are out to get me/us anyway). He says he is not sure himself - but the car behind him was pulled too, also for speeding. Somehow they both ended paying "only" 45 euros. He didn't even have his driving licence on him (had forgotten where he had put it - typical) and the gendarmes were pretty casual about it, after finding out that he lives locally - they just said he should go to the nearest gendarmerie with the licence as soon as possible, just to prove that he had one.

Given that there is a phenomenal number of French drivers who drive without a licence and without insurance, and another phenomenal number of fake driving licences around, it's interesting that the gendarmes were so casual. (Once they got their 45 euros).

As for speeding, do you know about that famous straight road that leads to one of the ferry ports (Calais?) where many people are caught speeding? Speed limit being 110 kph or maybe 130 kph... most of those caught, about 80%, are Brits trying to make the ferry. A couple of weeks ago, one was caught, clocking 255kph... They didn't use to have to pay, now they get spot fines...

oh yes i know it well!!! me drives through the night, plods along at 100ish with open ticket for the chunnel. arrives when i like etc.......... and near to calais the english cars wham past with a frenzy the closer you get. One almost ripped the paint off my car going so fast. That car however I found at the toll booth "engine gone bang" I'd have stopped to help but not them!!!!

I have to be honet i NEVER leave the house without mon sack de ville... its stuffed full of all the documents and a digital camera too (in case accident etc) never used yet fingers crossed.

Now speeding (expect lots of corrections but ITS TRUE) a car (uk) travelling at 120mph will track on your GPS at doing 105-110mph. Try it and see!!! a speedo normally by default is slower as they cant be trusted 'the older types' and newer ones 'inbuilt to show higher than doing'.

Now being stopped: I'd have to agree if they were following me, if they had evidence .... 'digital speed camera pic' etc. But they say??? without evidence, i'm gonna argue the matter trust me. And when my sister visted me here, the baby went hot and a bit sicky in the car, she undid her rear belt and tended to little one. Police general stop etc. They could not get heads round car with english plate had 'LV' for Latvia on the rear.......... (thats me being a git the french one has a CZ) anyway after telling them what LV was they just said ok its fine etc.... "oh and tell your wife to wear her seat belt please" well was my sister, but they saw it very well and realised why when i stopped. could have gone all officious (spelt) did not nice people.

Once was stopped in another persons car (sports thing went like merde off a shovel). Me I hit about 200-210ish in a 90 limit ........ opps! But is was violently fast a slight press it just took off! So got stopped after i shot past a police car. the car was de-badged (insurance demands) so they never knew it was a real GTI-6 nor did they know it was a belge import unrestricted. So i told them the car is a 1.3 base to look like etc etc . They even apologised that they must have missed the car they wanted

There is far more coruption in France than Britain. They are not like us.

Hey Johnny... I appreciate your comment about corruption, you may be right there, about the difference between in France and in Britain.
But who is "they" exactly? And who is "us"? Given that I am both "one of them" and "one of us"? (Franco-British, yes hybrids do exist, more and more actually...)

Us being British them being French .( its a British ex pat site)

Please dont start being PC.

Excuse me? I've never been a member of the Communist Party!!
So if I understand rightly, "us" is the half of me that's British, and "them" is the half of me that's French. Thanks for your enlightening comments. Duh?

If you dont know what PC stands for then your French side must be in the ascendant.

My ascendant, in fact, is in Leo. Do you know yours?

PC = Parti communiste, as well as Politically Correct. Trouble is, with being totally bilingual, that it makes for some great jokes, but not everybody gets them. This can be a lonely world.

How far back with ancestry do you think someone should go in order to qualify as British, or (heaven forbid) English? One generation, two, or five?

To be British is to love your country, its history, its traditions and be prepared to fight for them. Its nothing to do how long you have been in the GB.

I am proud to be English I am proud of what the country has achieved and kept Europe free. The state controls to much in many countries and that is what I dont like. To be British is to be more free than most countries.

well, i would say you've got no chance..pay up and forget it.
the gendarmes are not like the police, they are related to the military, and they would always have the upper hand-what they say would be law.
it happens in spain aswell( i had my motorbike forcible removed by a crane by a pompous, local traffic policeman, whilst i had to stand by and watch)
you will always get this happening.
forget it theres nothing you can do about it,
on the good side though-if you are mates with a high placed officer, you can get strings pulled- but its getting harder now.
on a couple of occasions i managed to get off the hook because i knew someone, and dropped a name.

I have been living in France for over 20 yrs and recently have heard of a gang of fake Gendarmes in the north, somewhere between Brittany and Normandy so if thats where they were then perhaps your friends were extremely unlucky?

That's terrible but it doesn't surprise me in the least. I also had a problem with a French lawyer. To cut a long story short, I was entitled to legal aid but he said I wasn't because of some savings I had. He insisted I paid 600 on account to commence work which I refused. Thankfully I had been given different advice before that and I was suspicious. I phoned legal aid board, they said yes, you can have full legal aid, phoned him back, he said, "vous etes de mauvaise foie comme tous les anglais". I'm am dishonourable like all the english. Not sure if I got the spelling right. Anyway, I had told him that I wasn't english, I am in fact Belgian, he had a copy of my passport, and he still insisted that I paid him. I ignored him and one day he telephoned, very aggressive. I said I was prepared to pay him for his time, which was also a joke because although I'd had an appointment, he kept me waiting 45 minutes and took 2 long telephone calls during our meeting. He finally revised his bill which was still extortionate but I did pay it and when he sent back my papers, he told me that I should send copies of his emails/letters to the Queen of England! It really does seem that these people are a law upon themselves! I have never been able to find out who regulates lawyers in France but I would suggest that you find out who regulates the Police. In the UK there is a complaints procedure/department and there should be here, though who knows. Shame they didn't take his name and number though it should be fairly easy to find out who was on duty that day and in that spot at that particular time.

A fairly simple remedy is to demand a receipt for any on-the-spot fines you may be done for.
If the police action is "genuine" then there should be no problem - and they have to account for all receipts issued.
No receipt - written BEFORE the cash is handed over - no payment.