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Ripped off in Italy by police
Page 6
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Fined £900 and left stranded for speeding? One driver found the Italian police less than hospitable. By Jennifer Ball.
A LINCOLNSHIRE haulier has bitterly criticised the treatment of one of his drivers after Italian police left him stranded without his truck, or food and water, following a minor speeding offence.
Smiths Distribution driver, Ray Ford was en-route to Rome last Friday (12 September) when he was arrested for speeding by Italian police in Fiorenzulo. They demanded he paid a €1,275 (£897) fine in cash.
When he couldn't pay he was driven to a garage where his vehicle was impounded. He was then forced to hand over paperwork for his load, his keys and his driving licence. The police then left him stranded there for six hours without food and water; and without telling him how to pay his fine.
After protracted negotiation between the firm, its Italian agents and the police, the fine was paid — but even then Ford was left without his driving licence.
Tony Smith, managing director at the firm blasts: "I feel that the fine and the treatment of the driver was extremely heavy-handed, possibly illegal, for a speeding offence. If British police treated a foreign driver in the same way all hell would break loose.
"While UK drivers face fines abroad, UK enforcement agencies are only able to issue a prohibition to foreign drivers, which they can chuck out the window when they drive up the road.There should be the same rules across the whole of European Union."
A spokeswoman for the Vehicle Operator Services Agency says that it is looking at the practicalities of issuing roadside fixed penalty notices to UK and foreign drivers: "It is proposed that the notices would be graduated in penalty upon severity and number of offences committed.
"We are also looking at a deposit system, which would require drivers without a UK address, committing serious offences, to pay a roadside deposit against a court imposed fine."