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.