DH has speeding ticket-from Spain!

schoolrunmum

Arrived in the post-although the address was mangled it still found us,he was snapped by a camera doing 137kmh in a 120kmh zone. I guess I'm asking,do we have to pay it? It was in a hire car so they must have given the feds our address....thoughts? 100e fine...

nigelbb

No you don't have to pay it any more than a Spanish driver who was flashed by a safety camera in the UK would have to. It's not like a 'proper' parking ticket where the car hire company will pay it then bill you & add an admin charge.

Unless of course you feel that you must do your bit for the flagging Spanish economy by donating 100.€

Gryphon005

OTOH......IF......you do go back to Spain and hire a car, and happen to get pulled over by the police, they can impound the hire car until all fines/penalties are paid in full.
Probably not a very high probability of getting caught, but it's not a threat that I'd like hanging over me whilst on holiday!

Stroma

Complete rubbish , they will not impound anything. How would they know who was driving if more than one person was allowed to drive ?

Just ignore this speeding ticket completely, this will never go further than probably euro parking collections (probably) writing to you with junk mail, ignore them

schoolrunmum

There were several people as named drivers on the hire agreement.....I guess that helps?
We go to Spain a lot, will their be any repurcussions re hiring cars in future? Would the hire company know about it?

Guys_Dad

I don't know about Spain, but 10 years ago I got a speeding ticket from the South African Police after I got home.

The hire company billed my credit card for £12.00. It was AMEX and I queried it and they credited me back.

Stroma

No repurcutions at all, they don't know who was driving so how can there be ?

Gryphon005

schoolrunmum wrote: »

There were several people as named drivers on the hire agreement.....I guess that helps?
We go to Spain a lot, will their be any repurcussions re hiring cars in future? Would the hire company know about it?

Several people as named drivers may add to the confusion, but I would guess 'DH' received the ticket as he was named as the main driver on the hire agreement? Does the ticket mention the possibility of the recipient naming some other person as the driver?
I'm not sufficiently conversant with Spanish motoring law to advise whether this makes the ticket unenforceable, but I think it would be dangerous to assume that the laws in Spain and the UK are similar.

The hire company would certainly know about the incident - after all, they are the one's who have provided the Spanish authorities with DH's details (home address, driving licence and passport info). I've also seen a forum post from an employee of a Spanish hire car firm, who claims that details of hirers with outstanding fines are logged on a database maintained by their trade association, making future hire bookings difficult, or at least, very expensive. Again, it is difficult to know if this is indeed the truth.........

Finally, a sobering post by 'The Geologist' on the MySpain.es forum, dated 5th Oct 2012 reads:
"Here is something for all you "Ignore it" people. I have just returned from Spain via my ancestor home city of Valencia. When we arrived and before the flight had reached the gate at Valencia, we were advised that Spanish police would be boarding the flight as there were some people on the aircraft they wanted, we would only be allowed to disembark after the police had boarded. They duly boarded and three people were identified, we were allowed to disembark, the three people followed us and were marched to an ATM one at a time. Over due fines are being forcibly collected, and extra charges added for non-payment. So be warned you can no longer ignore a fine they will get you. Reason Spain like the rest of La-la land )and I include the UK in that title), spent money by the container ship load that it didn't have and now it needs to pay its debts. So leave Spain and find yourself owing money you had better pay it or face the consequences when you return."

I have no idea whether the above mentioned fines were for motoring or for other matters, but I think the message is fairly clear......

27col

For anyone interested. The word is spelt "repercussions", and don't tell me. I know I should get a life..

aliasojo

I'm assuming (given the fact you go to Spain a lot) that you can actually afford to pay the fine?

Personally I'd just pay it for peace of mind for future trips.

LairyMary

I personally would be more inclined to just pay it, like aliasojo said.

Or at least check the T&C's of the company you hired the car from. There might be mention of their procedure regarding parking or speeding fines so even if you don't pay it, you might find you get charged for it anyway? Best to check IMHO!