British drivers in Europe can be fined up to £5,200 for using speed camera detection devices in their car
Some EU countries ban certain devices that are legal in Britain - and if local authorities suspect you have one fitted to your car, you could be fined thousand of pounds
BRITISH drivers could be slapped with fines of more than £5,000 if they drive through Europe with speed camera cheat devices fitted to their car.
Gadgets which are able to detect the location of speed radars are legal in the UK, but they can get drivers into hot water if they go abroad - and that includes some sat navs.
And while simple detection devices could land you a fine of a few hundred pounds, those that are able to block a radar from reading your speed could cost you thousands.
Drivers caught with a laser jamming device could be slapped with massive fines by local authorities.
Jamming devices are illegal right across the UK and drivers can be taken to court if police think they have used one - but cops in Europe have opted for major fines instead.
Spain recently introduced a crackdown on the devices, with drivers found guilty of trying to cheat speed cameras eligible for a 6,000 Euro (£5,250) penalty, while French authorities can charge motorists around 1,500 Euro for the same offence (£1,300).
How a laser jammer interferes with a speed gun
- The jammer comes pre-tuned to the same frequency used by police speed traps.
- It intercepts the beam coming in from the speed gun and sends a beam back on the same freqency.
- This means the only thing on the speed gun screen is an error message. The car's speed is not recorded.
- The device, which transmits through a laser head under the front number plate, continues to jam the police radar for a further five seconds.
- It also triggers an alarm which warns the driver to slam on the brakes so by the time he passes the speed camera for a second time they are abiding by the speed limit.
In Italy, simply using a device that tells you where speed cameras are, even that device is your sat nav, could allegedly cost you more than £2,000 in fines.
Under current EU laws, British motorists are able to be tracked down and punished by local police for traffic offences committed abroad.
Old legislation meant UK motorists could only be fined in Europe if they were stopped by police or were driving a hire vehicle - where their details then became available for police record.
But now European police have access to DVLA records, allowing them to chase motorists guilty of traffic offences.
The road laws you need to know
Britain recently saw a call for a crackdown on the sale of laser jamming devices online.
The devices can be legally sold as parking sensors or garage door openers, but become illegal if they are used to interfere with police radars and fixed speed cameras.