Two Romanian truck drivers are at the center of a row over fraud on France's toll roads. The truckers admitted to habitual evasion of payments by various means including “forced passage” and leaving tickets with low tariffs at an olive tree next to a lay-by for other drivers to pick up, according to French publication Le Parisien.

The CEO of Vinci, the company that operates the French toll roads, claims that since 2008, EUR 1.25 million has been lost due to truckers working for SNCF owned haulage firm Geodis evading tolls.

The two Romanians convicted of fraud work for Geodis' Spanish subsidiary Giraud Iberica and the Spain to France route appears to be where most of the fraud occurs, according to Le Parisien. The truckers say that pressure from the haulage company to keep toll charges low effectively gave them no choice.

If they wanted to keep their jobs and not suffer wage deductions they had to break the law, the Romanian truck drivers claimed. Geodis and its subsidiary Giraud claim that there were only “isolated acts of a handful of drivers,” reads Le Parisien.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

photo source: geodisbm.com