Top speeds of over 250 km/h, photos and videos of the speedometer taken on a mobile phone… And a huge number of posts on Snapchat. All of this has been going on for several months since last year.
According to our colleagues at Metro, a 26-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday and taken into police custody by the Lunel gendarmerie, before being referred to the Montpellier Public Prosecutor’s Office on Friday afternoon and then brought before the criminal court for an immediate hearing. The owner of a small business and a resident at his parents’ home on Rue de Verdun in Lunel, he filmed himself speeding, mainly on secondary roads in the Hérault department, before posting the videos on Snapchat, the popular app for ephemeral messages.
Although cyber-offences are a relatively new phenomenon and remain rare in the Montpellier Regional Court, officers from the Lunel Gendarmerie Brigade have not shied away from the challenge and have succeeded in putting a stop to serious traffic offences.
160 km/h over the speed limit
The videos recovered by the investigators, despite their ephemeral nature, were handed over to the judges at the public prosecutor’s request. The footage is shocking: on local roads, particularly between La Grande-Motte and Lunel, both day and night, the individual, at the wheel of a powerful Mercedes-Benz ML-350 SUV with over 200 chevaux under the bonnet, was filming and broadcasting his offences.
In one of the many videos, the police noted that his vehicle’s speedometer was showing 199 km/h instead of 90. In another, he was driving at 161 km/h instead of 90 km/h in the wrong direction, and a quick swerve of the steering wheel narrowly avoided a collision with an oncoming vehicle. Very often, he filmed himself driving the wrong way down the road, ‘running’ red lights and overtaking dangerously on both the right and the left, whilst commenting on his ‘exploits’ and his particular attachment to the Highway Code –"We don't give a damn about the Highway Code"-, or even, "driving at 250 km/h instead of 90...".
The judges were harsher than the prosecutor
With his mobile phone in his hand and driving up to 160 km/h over the speed limit, nothing seemed to be able to stop this reckless driver, who was on trial for the alleged offences of endangering others with an immediate risk of death or disability, obstructing the flow of traffic, unauthorised possession and unlawful use of narcotics.
After deliberating this evening, the court went beyond the sentencing recommendations of the public prosecutor, Nicolas Brignol – who had sought a six-month custodial sentence – as he was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, a fine of 3,000 euros, the permanent confiscation of his vehicle, the revocation of his driving licence and a two-year ban on retaking his driving test.
A sentence that does not include a committal order. The man from Lunel therefore left the courthouse as a free man. A probation officer will soon summon him to serve his sentence.