A British family has finally been caught by French police after evading as much as €3,000 (£2,500) in motorway toll charges.
Officers intercepted the group near the Swiss border at Besancon in eastern France.
The family had been dodging fees at toll booths for months by physically raising the barriers and driving through.
Their scheme was simple: one person would exit a vehicle, lift the toll booth barrier, and welcome all three cars onto the road ahead – for free.
French authorities finally caught up with them this week.
Operators of the A36 autoroute alerted authorities on Saturday after spotting a suspected fraud at a toll booth near Belfort.
Local police said that at the next toll booth, “a person got out of one of the three cars, raised the barrier to let the vehicles through, before getting back in”.
The Britons were subsequently stopped and ordered to settle their outstanding fares.
According to French local media, the family had been repeating this offence for months.
But after being snared, they paid the full four-figure fine in one go.
A separate motorist was also caught on the same A36 motorway after months of evading tolls by tailgating the car ahead of him through barriers.
Surveillance cameras eventually identified the driver, who faced a bill of €9,000 euros, or roughly £7,690.
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France has been shifting away from traditional toll booths towards overhead digital gantries as part of a move to “free-flow” electronic tolling.
The A14 adopted this system two summers ago, with the major A13 Paris-Normandy route following suit by March 2025 after removing its physical barriers.
But the transition has coincided with a rise in reports of scammers attempting to dodge their fares altogether.
Fare prices across France’s motorway network increased by around three per cent in February 2024.
Since then, they have risen by around around one per cent each year.
Controversial low-emission zones like London’s Ulez have also expanded significantly.
More than 40 towns and cities are now required to enforce them, including Bordeaux, Nice and Paris.
Foreign motorists risk being punished further, and can be slapped with a £640 fine if they do not display a “Crit’Air” sticker indicating their vehicle’s emission level.
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