Whilst on holiday my husband was flashed on the highway near Geneva airport by a camera. He was doing about 140kph in a 100kph zone. We have done a bit of research and it looks like we are going to be hit hard? Can he have his English lisence taken from him? What is the level of fine likely to be? Also, in England just because you get flashed it doesn't mean they will get you. They sometimes dont have film in the camera or sometimes they dont send the fine within the 14 day timelimit, what is the situation in Switzerland???

Got flashed on the 7th Dec near ZH in a hire car, still heard nothing. See thread

http://www.englishforum.ch/transport...light=speeding

As far as I know they cannot legally take your UK licence away for one month, saying that they can ban you for one month in CH.

I take it you were driving a UK car? If you were I don't think that there are any come backs on you, since they cannot trace you by the registration number.

Thank you for the quick reply. Unfortunately we were not in an English car, we were in a hire car too! Just have to cross fingers I suppose!

To be realistic it is 99% certain that the hire company will pass on the hefty fine to you at the address supplied. Modern cameras (the tall thin ones in the central reservation) are digital and don't run out of film.

I very much doubt that the Swiss police have any authority to remove/suspend a UK licence. Especially if the hiring/licence address is outside Switzerland.

I received a CHF120 fine for exceeding the speed limit by 8KPH outside somewhere called Portland in Victoria, Australia earlier this year. It was indeed me and paid it. So hire car companies and speeding fines seem to be well coordinated these days...

However: it all depends on what sort of coordination there is between the Swiss and British authorities on this. How for example would they handle non-payment from a UK resident? Some 20 years ago I collected a number of speeding fines (nothing as spectacular as 140 in a 100 zone) and parking tickets in a UK car in Switzerland while resident in the UK - I never saw a single speeding fine and threw the tickets away.

Let us know what happens...

I have many friends who live outside Switzerland but drive in CH. One guy was banned from driving in Switzerland for a month following a speeding offence. In his case they refused him entrance at the border. Others receive fines by post to addresses in france and germany. I think you should brace yourself for a hefty fine. I don't think you will have to hand in your license.

for about a year I drove from Basel to Zurich and back every day and got a few fines in the process. Never once if I was flashed did I not receive a fine. worst was 130 in a 100 zone but don't remember how much it was. They give you about 5 kph for free and then it's incremental with your speed.

I was flashed in a hire car three years ago and ignored the summonses passed on by the hire co to my uk address. On crossing by (my own) car into CH a little while later my passport was routinely checked and they found a summons against my name and locked me up for two hours while they checked what it was for. I was released on a promise to go and pay my (by then massive 1000 SF inc costs) fine as soon as I reached the Zurich police department which issued it. It can only get worse ( ie they must be even more experienced and efficient) now....

Essentially, one third of the fines never get paid and it's too costly to follow up. Usually it's Germans who are not used to the concept of speed limits and if you are from abroad, then it's difficult to track you down. Still, 60% of fines sent to Germans are paid, whereas only roughly a quarter of those expedited to France are settled.

If you want to see what you might be looking at:
This is the tariff system

Consequences to be faced in your case depend on how well the Swiss and British police work together. There are agreements with certain countries to put pressure on people to pay up their bills.

However, as you massively exceeded the speed limit without being arrested, what may happen is that, should you be in Switzerland and get caught up in a "Verkehrskontrolle", they may see the previous offence and hold you responsible there and then. This has been done in the past, as the archives of the city of Zurich show.

I presume it is superfluous to say that you shouldn't be speeding in the first place and that any consequence to be faced should not be grumbled at.