The Seaside Gazette
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
A resident of Motril has complained about his treatment by local police officers who fined him for walking in the road.
Ricardo Romero was completely flabbergasted at what happened as he walked down the very narrow street of Piedrabuena, with his sister.
They had been shopping and had a small ‘pull along’ shopping basket, but the pavement was so narrow that they could not both fit, so Ricardo naturally stepped into the road.
The next thing he knew, two local police officers pulled up beside him on motorbikes… and this is where things become rather more serious.
Ricardo claims the officers said he should not be walking on the road, to which he explained that the pavement is too narrow to walk with the shopping trolley. Now, although Ricardo is a Spanish citizen, he was born in Argentina, his father is a local chap from La Rabita, and he says as soon as the officers heard his accent they asked for his papers. Then wrote him out a ticket for him to pay an 80 euro fine for walking on the street.
After three and a half years living in Motril, Ricardo was astonished that he should be fined for something most people do every day in the town, “I felt discriminated against,” he said, “I had a fine for something that I truly did not understand, something that other people are doing every day.”
So, the rightly miffed Ricardo set off to speak with the Councillor responsible for the police, but was told he was not available to speak with him, nor was anyone from that office.
So, feeling he had no choice but to pay the fine, as nobody would speak with him at the Council Offices, he wandered in with his 80 euros… only to be told that for some reason, the fine had been cancelled and there was nothing to pay.
Obviously, someone, somewhere, had a huge attack of common sense!
