Speeding fine

wozzza72

Hi. I’ve received a speeding fine this morning from Spain where I was on holiday in June. I was driving a hire car, the letter is from the ‘Ministerio Del Interior’ not the hire company. 

109 km/h in an 80 zone. 

My question is, where do I stand with this? Can they enforce it? If I don’t pay what can they do? 

Thanks

NoodleDoodleMan

How much ?

I have no idea about enforcement outside Spain - but you might have an issue if you return and try to hire another vehicle.

TELLIT01

They might even have problems if they try entering Spain again, irrespective of car hire, if the fine isn't paid.  First thing though is to confirm that it is official and not some form of scam.

wozzza72

It’s €100 reduced to €50 if paid with a certain time. I can only pick out bits of this letter I need it translating really

eDicky

Has the hire firm imposed a service charge for passing on your details?

NoodleDoodleMan

wozzza72 said:

It’s €100 reduced to €50 if paid with a certain time. I can only pick out bits of this letter I need it translating really

Google translation tool works pretty well.

https://translate.google.co.uk/?sl=es&tl=en&op=translate

jimi_man

Hi. I've had a speeding ticket whilst in Spain a couple of years ago. From memory I had to pay the car hire company (Centauro - one of the best I've ever used but that's by the by!) an 'admin' fee. After that I never heard any more about it and apparently it just goes away. So I'm guessing it's unenforceable.

Still it's only 50 euros and no points so maybe just pay it and be done with it.

Brie

jimi_man said:

Still it's only 50 euros and no points so maybe just pay it and be done with it.

unless it's a scam....

jimi_man

Brie said:

jimi_man said:

Still it's only 50 euros and no points so maybe just pay it and be done with it.

unless it's a scam....

Indeed. Mine was through the car hire company, I didn't think they  (the Spanish Gov) contacted you direct. Maybe it's changed?

tightauldgit

I'm not sure how good the systems are in Spain at connecting the dots but I imagine that a speeding ticket is more or less unenforceable on a foreign national. While it might not be legally it probably is practically - I'd be surprised if they are going to send debt collectors to find you in the UK. 

Would it cause a problem for you re-entering Spain? I'd be surprised to be honest. I doubt immigration is going to keep a record of unpaid speeding tickets and check it off a register on entry. Possibly more likely you might find it would be flagged up if you ever tried to hire a car again and might cause an issue. 

On the other hand you never quite know what will happen and if it's a genuine ticket you probably wouldn't want it to cause you a problem in future if you ever found yourself back in Spain for the sake of 50 Euros.

CKhalvashi

TELLIT01 said:

They might even have problems if they try entering Spain again, irrespective of car hire, if the fine isn't paid.  First thing though is to confirm that it is official and not some form of scam.

The issue is also likely to be entering any country in the Schengen area. Details of unpaid fines are (I believe) part of the information shared.

tightauldgit said:

I'm not sure how good the systems are in Spain at connecting the dots but I imagine that a speeding ticket is more or less unenforceable on a foreign national. While it might not be legally it probably is practically - I'd be surprised if they are going to send debt collectors to find you in the UK. 

Would it cause a problem for you re-entering Spain? I'd be surprised to be honest. I doubt immigration is going to keep a record of unpaid speeding tickets and check it off a register on entry. Possibly more likely you might find it would be flagged up if you ever tried to hire a car again and might cause an issue. 

On the other hand you never quite know what will happen and if it's a genuine ticket you probably wouldn't want it to cause you a problem in future if you ever found yourself back in Spain for the sake of 50 Euros.

As above, I think the details of unpaid fines are shared via SIS so this could be wider reaching than OP realises.

For the sake of €50 it's probably just worth paying it and not having to worry.

There are agreements within EU countries to enforce fines incurred in another country so the systems likely are linked in some way which is likely to be detected at immigration.