Spanish speeding fine!??!

Robdav

Robdav

Robdav

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,754
Location
Southern England
morning all,

Odd one this. received a letter this morning to my home addresses which was addressed to someone how doesn't live here. I opened it, reasoning that I will make contact with whoever sent the official looking letter, and inform them that the letter was addressed incorrectly.

On inspection the letter is a payment reminder to pay a fine of 100 euros for speeding committed in September and captured by speed camera. The offence took place in Masnou, just outside Barcelona.

Thing is, no one who lives at our house (basically my wife and I) has ever been to Spain let alone been to Barcelona in our lives.

Before I reply to the letter via an email address has anyone has any similar experiences and where you forced to pay the fine regardless of the name on the letter?

thanks

Rob
 
I would just bin that. It's not your fine and you don't know who they are. I wouldn't bother replying. Next time you get a reminder just write not known at this address and stick it back in the post box.

Not sure why you think you can be forced to pay soneone elses fine.
 
thanks guys, just seemed a little odd how they got our address. Anyway I'll file the letter into the just in case pile and move on with my life.
 
Simon said:
Hire cars have your address. Did you move in recently?
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This is what happened to me a few years ago. I received a letter to my house addressed to the previous owner for a fine in Italy. The strange thing was that was several years after I moved in. I binned it.
 
I wouldn't particularly worry about an E.U. speeding fine in my name, never mind somebody else - I got one through the post from Cyprus for a road I know I hadn't been on and on a day I didn't even have the hire car, ignored it and not heard back three years later, in the meantime I've been back to Cyprus three times and they didn't arrest me! :D
 
So you opened a letter addressed to a past resident and you're questioning... what? Obviously the person it's addressed to was caught speeding, no? Or are you saying the offence was committed during a time that you lived in the property?

Either way you should be just writing 'no longer at address' on the envelope, scribble out your address and popping it back in the post.
 
Robdav said:
morning all,

Odd one this. received a letter this morning to my home addresses which was addressed to someone how doesn't live here. I opened it, reasoning that I will make contact with whoever sent the official looking letter, and inform them that the letter was addressed incorrectly.
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Maybe am missing something here

But why did you open this letter knowing it was addressed to someone else ?
 
Scania said:
I wouldn't particularly worry about an E.U. speeding fine in my name, never mind somebody else - I got one through the post from Cyprus for a road I know I hadn't been on and on a day I didn't even have the hire car, ignored it and not heard back three years later, in the meantime I've been back to Cyprus three times and they didn't arrest me! :D
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Doesn't always go like that - a relative of mine was quite blasé about a speeding fine from another country they never bothered to pay - went back again and ended up with the car impounded and they had to pay a fine and have someone else come out to collect the car as they wouldn't let him drive it out of the country! (I'm not 100% sure but I think he got caught and stopped for speeding the second time as well).
 
Firestar_3x said:
Is it legal to open mail not addressed to yourself?
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If it's delivered to your address and in a name you don't recognise, then you almost always have a reasonable excuse to open it which would mean no offence is committed.

s84(3) of the Postal Services Act 2000 is something most people have heard about but almost never actually read.

84(3) A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him.
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So you need to intend to act to another person's detriment and not have a reasonable excuse for the offence to be complete. Being able to contact the sender to inform them the address does not belong to the intended recipient is almost always a reasonable excuse and that's ignoring the fact you still need to prove the intent.
 
Scania said:
I wouldn't particularly worry about an E.U. speeding fine in my name, never mind somebody else - I got one through the post from Cyprus for a road I know I hadn't been on and on a day I didn't even have the hire car, ignored it and not heard back three years later, in the meantime I've been back to Cyprus three times and they didn't arrest me! :D
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Even with the EU database it's a nightmare trying to chase people abroad so most don't bother. It will be even worse once we leave :p
 
Nasher said:
Even with the EU database it's a nightmare trying to chase people abroad so most don't bother. It will be even worse once we leave :p
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Whilst they can theoretically chase foreign nationals as you say the hassle isn’t usually worth it to them.

There’s a reason the DVSA impounds EU trucks caught flouting whatever regulation, they know damn well if they don’t they’ve got next to no chance of any follow up once the truck has left the U.K. and I doubt it’s any different in reality for private cars.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
If it's delivered to your address and in a name you don't recognise, then you almost always have a reasonable excuse to open it which would mean no offence is committed.

s84(3) of the Postal Services Act 2000 is something most people have heard about but almost never actually read.

So you need to intend to act to another person's detriment and not have a reasonable excuse for the offence to be complete. Being able to contact the sender to inform them the address does not belong to the intended recipient is almost always a reasonable excuse and that's ignoring the fact you still need to prove the intent.
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I assume it gets more complex when you have a return address printed on the envelope.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Source for what? The fact it's normal or legal?
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Yeah legal. Your follow-up post makes sense, I just always assumed you couldn't open (or bin) post addressed to someone else.

Interestingly I have about $200 worth of toll charges plus the associated fines outstanding from a trip to Singapore where I drove around the city for 3 days without a tag/toll card in because nobody told me to. It was a hire car obviously and although the trip was 18 months ago I'm still not confident that I'm past receiving a letter. I've moved house since though and the rental company won't have up-to-date details so I guess they'll just give up even if they try.
 
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