The case relates to an incident in 2023, when a driver working for a Romanian transport company was checked in France by DREAL agents. During the inspection, the officer asked the driver questions in French, despite the fact that the driver did not speak the language and could only communicate in Romanian. Although the driver requested the presence of an interpreter and a lawyer, the DREAL agents proceeded with the conversation using Google Translate, ignoring the driver’s request, according to the Romanian transport organisation UNTRR.
According to the records of the French inspectorate, the driver admitted to being on the road for over eight weeks. This was used as evidence that his employer, a well-known Romanian transport company, had failed to organise his return to the country of residence once every four weeks, as required by the regulations of the Mobility Package.
“The driver later denied these allegations during the trial. After carrying out checks, the Chaumont prosecutor imposed bail on the company in the amount of €4,500. The company was subsequently convicted of failing to organise the driver’s work in such a way as to enable him to return home or to the operational centre regularly – an obligation set out in Articles 8 and 8a of Regulation (EC) No. 1072/2009. 561/2006. This offence is regulated by Article L3315-4-1 of the French Transport Code and is punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of €30,000,” the UNTRR statement reads.
The Romanian carrier appealed the decision, and the Criminal Court ultimately acquitted the company’s legal representative, citing procedural irregularities.
According to the court, the proceedings initiated by the DREAL agent violated Article 61-1 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure, which stipulates that the person being questioned must be informed of their right to defence if there are indications of a crime. The court found that the questioning was conducted using an automatic translation tool in Romanian, without informing the driver of his rights in a language he could understand.
The decision also emphasised that the use of such a tool does not allow for the verification of the accuracy of the translation. As a result, the court found that the entire procedure, including the indictment against the employer, was legally flawed and must be invalidated.
“The court stressed that the accusation against the company was based solely on the driver’s testimony, obtained without respect for his fundamental rights. The General Prosecutor’s Office recently confirmed that it would not appeal this decision,” UNTRR concluded.
Another such verdict
This is not the first such ruling in France, nor is it the first time that French authorities have failed to apply proper procedures during inspections. It is worth recalling that, at the end of last year, a similar ruling was issued by the Paris Court of Appeal. On that occasion, the court ruled that the French transport inspection had violated the rights of a driver from a Romanian transport company during a road check in April 2021.
During the inspection, DREAL officers accused the driver of violating regulations on working hours – in their view, the Romanian driver had deliberately recorded his hours manually in order to exceed permitted driving limits and take advantage of a reduced weekly rest period in his truck.
In that case as well, DREAL agents did not use the help of an interpreter, which the court regarded as a procedural error, given that the driver did not understand French. Furthermore, the court found that the driver had not been informed of his right to remain silent or to have a lawyer present during questioning. As a result, the court invalidated the statements collected during the inspection and ruled that the French state must cover the Romanian company’s legal costs in the case.