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Was in Portugal in May, I drove over a solid white line that I shouldn't have about 300 yards after picking up the rental car. There was a traffic cop nearby who saw, took details and said I would receive a ticket in the post. Fair enough my fault. July and the ticket has arrived I cant for the life of me figure out how to pay. Obviously the letter is all in Portuguese, my Portuguese goes as far as badly ordering and paying for dinner. Have used google translate on the letter. All the guidance relates to paying at a post office.
Anyone want to own up to having had a traffic violation and give me some guidance on how to pay? You can even tell me about how your "friend" had a Portuguese traffic violation and paid if that's better.
I paid a German one via the IBAN number printed on the letter. I used an FX transfer site I have an account on. That was Germany though… Is there any evidence of an IBAN? If so load it into https://www.xe.com/ibancalculator/ and you’ll know you’re on the right track.
Serious suggestion, Portugese Embassy to UK, email: londres@mne.pt
I drove over a solid white line that I shouldn’t have
why did you not get a 5 sec time penalty
From this site
The payment of the fine and / or costs can be made by international bank transfer in local bank partner of ANSR and IGCP, depending on the country of residence, as indicated in the instructions list.
The infraction number must be referenced in the description of the transfer after the IBAN as mentioned in the instructions list.
The documents proving the transfer should be sent to (indicating the number(s) of infraction(s) in the subject):
EMAIL: receita@ansr.pt
MAIL ADDRESS:
National Authority for Road Safety (ANSR)
Tagus Park- Av.ª Casal Cabanas
Urbanização Cabanas Golf nº 1
2743-507 BarcarenaEMAIL: mail@ansr.pt
I got one somewhere in portugal a few years ago. Had an IBAN on the ticket, paid via bank transfer from my app. Fairly painless.
you can take a picture of the ticket with your phone and use google translate to translate it, but it should be pretty obvious
What happens if you don’t pay it…?
Worst case a warrant for your arrest gets issued which you don't know about till you land in country again many years later and find yourself in a whole world of pain....
Although to be fair, I got a parking ticket in Italy for my UK registered car and on return to the hotel, ticket in hand, the landlady rushed out, grabbed it from my hand and shredded it in front of me, shouting "This is Italy, we don't pay fines". I've been back several times and am still a free man...
Update.
It makes a lot more sense when you're wife sends you the whole letter. I'm away at work I spent an evening searching the web trying to confirm payment details and how much to pay as the front page only stated the range of penalties for my charge. My wife had only sent me a photo of the front page. On the back of the letter are all the instructions and IBAN details. Just needs a bank transfer and then email to ansr.pt with a payment receipt.
Stress over.
I’m always intrigued by the the arrest warrant for a traffic violation as I think this is possibly an urban myth.
To issue an EAW it states…
a European Union Member State is looking for you because you have been charged with a criminal offence for which, in case of conviction, you can potentially be given more than 12 months of prison sentence and that Member State wants you to face trial there
An interesting thing is you may struggle to hire a car in the eu in the future as they want put you on the naughty list.(it’s a ‘thing’ they are proposing)
Which could be funny at 3am in the airport hertz with your non driving family.
I drove over a solid white line that I shouldn’t have about 300 yards after picking up the rental car
There was a traffic cop nearby who saw, took details and said I would receive a ticket
Crosses Portugal off list of holiday destinations.
To issue an EAW it states…
a European Union Member State is looking for you because you have been charged with a criminal offence for which, in case of conviction, you can potentially be given more than 12 months of prison sentence and that Member State wants you to face trial there
By the time you've failed to pay and failed to attend court etc, the penalty could easily roll on to have a 12 month prison sentence max.
It's not EU but I got a speeding fine in Switzerland. It was very expensive, but in the letter they did offer me 3 nights in an open prison as an alternative.
I drove over a solid white line that I shouldn’t have about 300 yards after picking up the rental car
There was a traffic cop nearby who saw, took details and said I would receive a ticket
Crosses Portugal off list of holiday destinations.
To be fair, he did omit details of the 17 car pile-up that he caused. 😀
I’m always intrigued by the the arrest warrant for a traffic violation as I think this is possibly an urban myth.
To issue an EAW it states…
Its not (entirely) an Urban myth. Before Brexit the situation was:
1. if as a UK resident, you got fined in an EU country outside the UK, then subject to certain conditions those fines could be transferred to a UK court for recovery (I think there was a minimum value of €150?).
2. Same thing happens within the UK. Get fined in Scotland and don't pay it then if you are an English resident it will be transferred to the English courts to go get the money, and if you are a Scottish resident fined in England, your local Scottish court will get given the job of collecting it.
3. In Scotland (it will be similar in England but I don't know the details), the court will write to you and ask for the money. When you ignore it they will (likely) cite you to court to explain yourself. If you ignore that, a warrant will be granted. If the cops have your current address and have a quiet evening they will come and collect you. Otherwise, they will arrest you either (a) when you do something else to come to their attention - like driving too fast, arguing in a pub etc or (b) go through passport control arriving/leaving the country. [there are two important differences between English and Scottish fines - for MOST offences in Scotland you can only (easily) get a fine if you know about the case; in England ignoring a case (or having never received the papers) will usually see you convicted in your absence and; also in England they seem to routinely use Bailiffs to extract fines]
4. In the UK if you are arrested for not paying a fine you can pay it there and then to the cop and will be released. If that's an English fine then because they add prosecution costs etc to the fine, and if they don't know your means will guess - you might be looking at close to four figures for some fairly minor traffic offences - which would put a dampener on most people's holiday!
5. If a foreign national has an unpaid UK fine (that's made it through the court process) they will be detained on arrival in the UK. It seems to be the same if you go to EU countries.
Note point 1 above probably doesn't apply since Brexit - although I've not checked. it only applied pre-Brexit for countries who chose to do it (the admin costs of doing it were as much as you would ever get in fines - its about sending a message not the cash).
None of that is a European Arrest Warrant though - which is used to get someone arrested whilst the are still in another (e.g. their own) country. That would not be possible for speeding, but could be for more serious driving offences.
Obviously the letter is all in Portuguese, my Portuguese goes as far as badly ordering and paying for dinner. Have used google translate on the letter. All the guidance relates to paying at a post office.
If you want you can ask them for it in English in accordance with ECHR Article 6(3)a. I have no idea how that will be received. Three possible outcomes:
- it gets sent to you in English
- it gets dropped completely
- it gets ignored and the fine gets bigger!
letter they did offer me 3 nights in an open prison as an alternative.
Could have worked out cheaper than Airbnb 🙂