As some of you may know 2 freinds and I recently spent 3 weeks touring Scandinavia, and I must say what an amazing part of the world, beautiful scenery, beautiful weather and beautiful people!

However, 2 freinds of mine that recently did a similar trip were not so lucky, they got caught speeding by an unmarked car and fined HUGE sum of money! The exchange rate means it is circa £850

They held their hands up and excepted what the officer said to them (who apparently was also a very nice chap!) and went on their way.

They are now home and have 'till mid next week to pay the fine!

Now although they except the fact that they were in the wrong and understand the punishment neither of them have that sum of money spare!

They have asked me to ask on here what might happen if they did not pay?

Now from experience being flashed on cameras in say France usually means you will hear nothing. Does anyone know if this is the case in Scandinavia i.e the fine will just get thrown out etc?

Are they likely to get asked to return to Norway?
Can they enforce the fine through the English embassy or is it likely they just will not be welcome back to Scandinavia?

Now I do not want to start a debate on how dangerous speeding is etc, they were in the wrong, they except that ( I personally would just pay it!)
but they would just like to 'weigh' up their options!

As always your help is much appreciated!

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'There's no such thing as madness just different degrees of normality'

I have no idea what happen of they don’t pay the fine.

If they don’t have enough money they can pay a certain sum every month but they have to call (0047)75 14 93 00 to agree on the details.

There is some info here: Statens Innkrevingssentral

From Si:

Instalment and postponement
If you are not able to pay the claim at the moment you may contact us for an instalment.
For new claims based on a fixed penalty notice and fees for minor traffic violation, we ask you to wait until you have received the giro form from NCA (SI) before contacting us.
You will not get any additional fees on this first giro form from NCA (SI).

Many thanks for finding that for me - that seems like a very fair option?

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'There's no such thing as madness just different degrees of normality'

For any traffic offence, the foreign government can apply to a UK court to enforce the penalty. This takes time, is relatively expensive and is labour intensive. They are trying to automate it, but this seems hit and miss. As a result, most speeding fines are not pursued, they save the effort for drunk drivers etc. In a serious case, where a treaty exists they could even apply for extradition, in which case the UK police would come looking for you. For £850 they might chase you via your local magistrates court or "safety camera" partnership, they may not. I know truck drivers who've ignored hours and loading offences in France and Germany and have had the UK authorities come looking for them.

Passports are now read electronically. This means any outstanding arrest warrents can be served at a port of entry. This means if a Norwegian court issued a warrent for your arrest for not paying the fine you'd be off to chokey as soon as you set foot in Norway again. I have no idea if the Norwegian court would issue such a warrent for a speeding fine or what the limit on it's life would be.

I'd say the simple solution is to ask for the terms on the installment payments.

Andy

Andy, I think that is the best option, I wonder what they would accept as monthly installments?!

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'There's no such thing as madness just different degrees of normality'

When the taxman came after me for far more than I anticipated some years ago my accountant told me to offer monthly instalments of less than I could afford to pay because they (the tax office) would ask for more than I offered so I did what I was told and yes they did ask for more than I originally offered but as I'd offered less than I could afford it all worked out nicely.
Well it didn't really because I still had to pay it and I know this is a speeding fine but I would adopt the same principal in this case.

A friend of mine (student) paid 25€ each month.

Do you have to use your passport when you enter Norway? I’ve entered Norway by plane, ferry and car/bike and have not been asked for my passport since Schengen.

As I said I’m not sure what happens if they don’t pay but I know that when a foreigner don’t pay when they use toll-road certain companies make a living hell for the foreigners and they have to pay multiple times the original cost.

When speed limit 60 km/t or less:
+5km/h 600NOK (75€)
+10km/h 1600NOK (200€)
+15km/h 2900NOK (360€)
+20km/h 4200NOK (525€)
+25km/h 6500NOK (810€)

When speed limit 70 km/t or more:
+5km/h 600NOK (75€)
+10km/h 1600NOK (200€)
+15km/h 2600NOK (325€)
+20km/h 3600NOK (450€)
+25km/h 4900NOK (610€)
+30km/h 6500NOK (810€)
+35km/h 7800NOK (975€)

If you drive faster then the number above you have to go to court and it will probably end up in a mix of a fine, prison and loosing your license.

it all depends...on wether they want to go back to norway again.
it's highly unlikely they are going to bother trying to track your friends down for an 800 quid fine.even if they did what then?...you just pay it then.there can't be a ban or points or anything.what info did the copper take? passport numbers? licence numbers?
my driving licence still has an old address on it, I no longer live where my last passport was sent...
In france if they nick you in person they'll make you pay on the spot.
I've been flashed by a camera in france and been back there since with no trouble. Been stopped in spain and given a ticket but also heard of being made to pay on the spot there.also never paid it and been back numerous times.
yea, yea one day they just may catch up with me....till then..
Tell your 'friends' to act like the rufty tufty bikers we're supposed to be an give 'em the finger!

Exactly. Offer £1 a week or whatever you can justify (assuming you didn't win the lottery). They'll counter offer and you work from there. They might even send you a form like you get for a loan. Exagerate your out goings and bingo it's a fiver a month. Read the info though, they may actually be lending you the money at some rubbish rate. UK gov doesn't do this for fines but it won't be long before they take a page out of the standard debt collectors manual.

Last time I went to Norway by boat they did check passports, UK isn't a Schengen country so I guess they thought it was the right idea. When I went by road they couldn't do more than random checks. A rider from say Portugal would be unlucky to get caught, but the UK as usual is applying all the rules as hard as they can and has hard borders which increases the chances of ending up worse off than paying the fine over say 3 years.

If you get caught back in the country where the offence occured you'd be lucky to only have to pay the fine. If the court issued a warrent you'll be off to jail until they sort it out. Getting deported isn't cheap either.

Andy

...and if they don't accept, you could still pay them a pound a week by standing order and see what happens.

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I've a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore.

I don’t know about the rates in England, but if it’s like here I have to pay 5£ to make a payment to other countries so this will be a very expensive solution.

Charging by the internet mile? So much for the electronic revolution.

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I've a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore.

Cheers for all of the info guys, one of the chaps is apparently calling them today to try and come to some agreement!!

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'There's no such thing as madness just different degrees of normality'

I'm an American and was caught speeding in Norway back in March. I actually got two tickets: one camera and was pulled over by a cop. I didn't know how much the camera was at the time, but the speeding ticket from the cop was around $800.

Just got some letters to my home address in the US (off of my drivers license) from a collection agency (SI) demanding payment of the money. A fine has been assessed on top of it and now the total amount is around $400. This seems strange and leads me to believe that it is the camera fine. But regardless, I don't want to pay this and am inclined to just ignore all communications from them. I would be very surprised if for that amount of money they would organize any kind of extradition or have the US courts come after me in any way...? I guess I would just never be able to return to Norway...?

This thread has been very helpful in providing some insights, but just checking to see if anyone else has any opinions/suggestions, perhaps from a US perspective?

Thanks much...

Bad luck....

You are right; the second fine is from the camera.
Did they send you the photo? If not you can ask them to get the photo, they have to be able to identify the driver. If it’s not clearly you on the photo you don’t have to pay, it could have been a hitchhiker or someone else you don’t remember…

Luckily bikers don’t have problem with the cameras…