Hi Guys and any old hands. A long time ago in France ( havnt been for a while ) whenever the gendarmes stopped you, the first thing they asked for was your passport, now this was to be used for identification, and also to be kept if you had a problem, and a fine needed to be paid. They would often take you to a local ATM/bank to withdraw the money they wanted, and your passport given back once the transaction had been completed, now my questions are this:
We have often been told that we were only allowed to hand over our passport, to an official Customs officer, and not mr plod a general run of the mill policeman.
Did any european drivers ever refuse to hand over his passport, and if so, what was the outcome.
I believe that this is a travesty of justice, and they have no right to take that legal document, and may i add that it is not only France who did/do this, but also the east european countries. Most of us did hand it over without hindrance or penalty ( apart from the odd packet of cigies )
Yes i agree toby, they always want something that you are going to need to hold you to ransom, on the odd occasion when i have refused my passport, telling them they are not immigration approved, they have then asked for my licence or some other document, i dont believe it happens in this country, probably just a licence ?
When I was running over the water in the 90s I had to leave my p/port at the goods in office in some del points in order to get tipped,this used to happen mostly in Poland.
regards dave.
I once followed a French registered truck at the Swiss/French border at St.Louis through the French gate where you hand in paperwork etc before looping round on to the motorway. The French truck ignored the stop sign and drove straight through, obviously empty, I was also empty, slowed right down but didn’t come to a complete stop and then carried on…I then heard an awful lot of shouting and saw arm waving in my passenger side mirror as a customs officer came running towards me and started hammering on the passenger door whilst ranting. He then realised it was right hand drive and came round my side and demanded my passport and ranted on and on about me not coming to a complete stop. I asked if French trucks were exempt because if he saw me doing it, he’d also have seen his fellow countryman do the same. He basically just threw the passport at my through my open window and gave some kind of threat about if he ever saw me do it again etc and that was the end of it
The US border guards often used to ask for your driving licence as well as your passport if they wanted you to report inside for anything but I haven’t had that for 4 or 5 years now.
As for having to hand in a passport just to get tipped somewhere, WTF?!
They still do ask or your passport. So do the Douane and indeed any foreign police force/ customs officer that has ever stopped me. And in fact a lot of goods in bodies also ask for it, even though I only use my digi card for that request.
haven’t carried my passport with me since the last time I drove to turkey, five years ago. actually had two as on occasion when one was at an embassy waiting for a visa, sometimes for weeks, you could use the other one to travel outside the eu. can’t remember the last time I was asked for one either, have only my ID card, driver’s licence and so on.
milodon:
haven’t carried my passport with me since the last time I drove to turkey, five years ago. actually had two as on occasion when one was at an embassy waiting for a visa, sometimes for weeks, you could use the other one to travel outside the eu. can’t remember the last time I was asked for one either, have only my ID card, driver’s licence and so on.
In the UK we don’t have ID cards.
We do have other identifying cards, like driving licence, digi card, dcpc card and so on, but not an officially issued ID card. We use our passport as our officially issued ID.
I was asked for my passport at IJmuiden dock a fortnight ago when I was coming back home.
