If you commit a traffic offence in France, it helps to be called Sarkozy. That was the angry response yesterday from the son of an Algerian immigrant after he brought Jean Sarkozy, 20, second son of the President, before a Paris criminal court for failing to stop after an accident.

M’Hamed Bellouti, 37, who initiated a private prosecution, voiced his indignation after three judges devoted extraordinary care to “the case of the Sarkozy scooter” and postponed the trial pending more investigation.

“Sarko Junior”, a law student with flowing blond locks, stood before the bench after the judges dealt with alleged cocaine dealers, mobile phone thieves and other voyous (louts) of the kind to whom Super-Sarko promises no mercy.

Mr Bellouti started the proceedings after he said that police refused to investigate a collision in which Jean Sarkozy’s scooter ran into the rear of a BMW car that he was driving in the Place de la Concorde in October 2005. Thierry Herzog, Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer, told the court that tests had shown that the front wheel of the scooter was too low to scratch the BMW.

“Nothing surprises me any more. I have had enough of this,” Mr Bellouti told The Times, after Mr Sarkozy left the dock at the Paris central courts pursued by a posse of television crews. “They say his scooter couldn’t have hit the car, but they had no doubts when a motorbike hit a police car last week,” he added, referring to the crash that killed two teenagers and sparked riots north of Paris.

Mr Bellouti is claiming €260 (£176) for a damaged rear bumper, and €4,000 in further damages and interest for the delay in settling his claim. His passenger took the number of the scooter as it drove away, with its driver “making an obscene gesture with his finger”. He reported the incident to police. Ten months later, after they “failed to trace” the scooter, Mr Bellouti’s insurance company found the scooter owner immediately. Jean Sarkozy did not respond to five registered letters so Mr Bellouti, who is a former law student with part-time employment, started his action.

His determination increased when the same scooter made headlines after its theft from outside the Sarkozy home while Sarko Senior was running for the presidency. The thieves were arrested on an immigrant housing estate ten days later after police deployed heavy resources, including DNA testing, to find them.

Mr Bellouti asked: “Why is there a two-speed justice system? When they steal his scooter they are full of zeal. When it hits my car, there is less zeal.”

Christophe Launay, Mr Bellouti’s lawyer, said that “three lawyers refused to take the case because they thought it would blow their careers”.

The judges have ordered elaborate tests to be conducted on the car and a simulation of the alleged accident to determine whether Mr Sarkozy’s scooter was involved. “It’s amazing the lengths they are going to for a €250 accident when they lock away voyous for nicking something in no time flat,” commented a lawyer who had just defended her client in the same court room.

Times Recommends

• No apology for Germany’s own Nazi victims
• Intricate web of fear and hope tying down deal
• Victims remembered a year after Mumbai attacks