A 78-year-old couple from Bueu received six fines of 200 euros for entering the ZBE of Barcelona without ever having set foot in the city with their car.
Carmen and José, a couple aged 78 from Bueu (Pontevedra), have accumulated six fines of 200 euros each for driving without authorization in the Low Emission Zone of Barcelona. Their Audi A4, they explain, never leaves the province of Pontevedra.
The problem arose at the management agency that represents them. Francisco José Domínguez detected the error while reviewing the photographs that accompanied the complaints: one of them showed what appeared to be a trailer or a tractor, with a partially erased registration number.
According to the manager, the registration number of the fine starts without the letter E, but matches the rest of the characters with that of the couple's vehicle. Tractors have a specific registration that starts with that letter, while cars have the ordinary European registration, with the E in the blue band.
“She doesn't have a tractor, she has a car,” Domínguez states.
The manager rules out identity theft, although he cannot confirm if the image may have been manipulated. He attributes the fines to an administrative error.
The first three fines were annulled all at once after appeals were submitted to the Barcelona City Council. When three more complaints arrived this year, three of which corresponded to Travessera de les Corts, two to avenida de Madrid, and one to avenida Parallel, the agency had to repeat the arguments.
The council also rejected a compensation of 150 euros requested by the agency to cover the time and expenses of preparing the documentation. The City Council speaks of a possible “isolated error” in the reading of the registration number.
The control operates with cameras that photograph vehicles in restricted areas. The images are sent to the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, which checks if the car has authorization or any exceptions, and then the Municipal Tax Institute processes the fine and notifies the owner. Municipal sources indicate that a tractor could not circulate on the streets where the infractions were recorded.
For any driver in Barcelona, this case shows that an erroneous reading of a registration number can lead to a fine and that the appeal is the way to annul it. Carmen and José have not had to pay, but the process has taken them months of management.
“The real offender remains at ease,” Domínguez points out.
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