Motorist faces €9,382 toll bill after months of "little train" evasion on A36
A motorist from the Doubs department was intercepted on the A36 motorway after dodging toll booths for months using the "petit train" technique. The outstanding toll charges amounted to €9,382.
Months-long toll fraud on A36 results in €9,382 bill
A motorist from the French department of Doubs was intercepted on Sunday 14 June on the A36 motorway, near Saint-Maurice-Colombier, roughly twenty kilometres from Montbéliard. According to autojournal.fr, motorcycle officers from the Villars-sous-Écot patrol unit had set up routine checks when they noticed a car passing through a toll barrier without paying. Further investigation revealed this was not an isolated infringement.
Using surveillance cameras installed at each toll lane, highway officers were able to reconstruct the complete passage history of the vehicle. The same scenario repeated itself time and again: the car drove as close as possible to the vehicle ahead, took advantage of the raised barrier, and drove through without paying itself. Automatic number plate recognition linked multiple months of toll fraud to the same vehicle. The total amount of unpaid tolls reached €9,382, which the driver had to settle on the spot.
The so-called "petit train" technique — in which a driver tailgates the vehicle ahead to slip through an opened barrier without making their own payment — is well known to motorway operators as one of the most widespread forms of toll fraud. These operators have increasingly equipped their barriers with cameras that register vehicles individually. Recent cases show that these images are subsequently used to catalogue fraudulent journeys, after which the drivers involved are charged with the full outstanding toll amounts and sometimes also penalties.
The incident on the A36 is not an isolated case. On the A9, near Loupian in the Hérault, another motorist was caught using a different method: he covered his number plate to evade the cameras and claimed at the exit barrier that he had lost his ticket, paying only the minimum tariff each time. Investigators recorded 144 fraudulent passages totalling nearly €13,000 in evaded toll charges. The driver admitted the facts, paid the amounts owing, and received an additional fine of €1,125.
A former deputy head of instruction at the Marseille court was also prosecuted for similar offences. The 47-year-old magistrate received a fourteen-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of €16,000, and was subsequently referred to a disciplinary body. These cases illustrate the financial magnitude that disputes over unpaid toll charges can reach.
Source: 7sur7 Faits Divers