ginovandewalle.com

I have been living in Portugal since September 1, 2003. In all these years, a lot of things have happened to me in this amazing country, some wonderful things, some good things, and some pretty bad things as well. I can live with a whole lot, based on the experience of a journey through life for almost fifty years right now. Earlier today, I paid a € 250,00 fine. It is the first time in many, many years that I have received a fine, and it certainly is the very first one since I have been living in Portugal. I feel that I hadn’t done anything wrong, but having talked to two lawyers around this case, I felt there was nothing I could do but paying this ridiculous sum of money. However, I sent a registered letter to the local police station, expressing my feelings around this case. I couldn’t help but publishing the letter on this website. I wonder - and seriously doubt  it - if Portuguese police will even have the decency to respond to this letter. I will keep you posted on it… Enjoy.

GUARDA NATIONAL REBUBLICANA

Comando Territorial Faro

Destacamento Territorial Tavira

Posto Territorial Castro Marim

Rua S. Sebastiao, n° 53

8950-121 CASTRO MARIM

29th of January of 2010

Your Reference: 27/SC/10

Your letter of 13^th of January of 2010

Dear Sirs,

First of all, I want to apologise for writing this letter in English, but my Portuguese is unfortunately not good enough to express my feelings regarding the above mentioned case.

Earlier today, I have paid the sum of € 250,00 for a fine which your officers gave me regarding an infraction of my company van on 15^th of December of 2009. I have serious doubts about the legality of having received this fine.

Let me explain what has happened.

On the morning of the 10^th of December of 2009, I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to take the van to the inspection. My mistake, but I guess nobody is perfect. As I would NEVER drive a car that has not been to inspection, I kept the van on the public parking where I had parked it the day before, and I immediately called a towing service to take the van to the inspection as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the towing service could only come on the 15^th of December, some time in the afternoon. As I have another car within the company, I didn’t see any problem, and drove the other car during those days.

However, on the morning of 15^th of December 2009, while walking along the street, I noticed that somebody had ran into my van, damaging it severely at the back left side of it. As this had already happened a couple of times before, and as I did not see any notification from the person who had bumped into it, I took the wrong decision of calling the GNR. In a normal civilised country, one expects that the police is there to protect and to help hard working decent people. What a mistake this was!

About 15 minutes later, the GNR arrived into my street, and started taking notes. Your people asked me to present my documents, and the papers of the car, and to my very big surprise, your people gave me a fine of € 250,00 because the van had not passed the inspection.

The van was NOT taking part in the traffic, it was parked legally alongside the road, waiting to be towed away to the inspection. I would have easily accepted this fine if I had been driving the van, but this was not the case. Therefore, I have some real doubts about the legality of this fine!

By writing this letter, I want to express my disappointment in the actions of the GNR. I have been living in this beautiful country since the 1^st of September of 2003, and during these six years and five months, quite some things have happened to me. One evening a couple of years ago, I was attacked by some crazy young Brazilian in my house. I didn’t bother to call the GNR, as this young guy had already ran away. On two earlier occasions, some unknown person had bumped into my van, seriously damaging the car. I did not bother to call the GNR, as I didn’t know who had done this. Only a couple of weeks ago, my other car was seriously damaged by some unknown vandals. Believe me, finding a car with two tires flat (because somebody used a knife to cut the tires to peaces), with the wipers missing, and the back door seriously damaged as well, does not give a good feeling. However, I did not bother to call the GNR. But on the morning of 15^th of December, I did. And today, I seriously regret having done so.

All of my life, I have been driving an average of 50000 kilometres per year. Having come to live over here since 2003, that has not changed. This means that I have already driven a whole lot of kilometres with several cars over here as well. As you can undoubtedly check, I have never received any kind of fine at all. I also want to mention the fact that, while driving the van, I get stopped AT LEAST TWICE A WEEK by GNR throughout the Algarve. One day a couple of years ago, I was stopped THREE times, on one morning, in between Vila Nova de Cacela and Faro, a short distance of about 50 kilometres. THREE times, I had to show all the papers, THREE times, I had to explain to your people that I wasn’t carrying anything in my van, and THREE times, I was asked to open up the van and show your people that I was telling the truth. Isn’t this a little bit over the normal way of doing things over here in this country?

Let’s do some mathematics: 2 times being stopped by GNR per week, times 50 weeks per year, times 6 years, makes a total of more than 600 times passing a check-point. And yet, on not a single occasion, GNR could find anything that was wrong with my papers or my cars…

Never in my life, in not any country in which I have lived, worked or travelled, have I been stopped that many times by local police. This only happens in Portugal.

And now, while I did NOT drive the car because of the fact that the inspection had not been done, you gave me this fine. This also can only happen in Portugal.

In an era where crime is rising very rapidly throughout the Algarve, where a lot of people who live over here are being mugged and robbed on a daily basis, where the level of violence against middle aged and elderly couples living in isolated areas has reached unprecedented levels, writing out these kind of stupid fines is not a good sign.

In the foreign community that is living in the Algarve, already a long time, word is being spread that the only goal of Portuguese police is to collect as many fines as possible. I could never believe this, but today, after what has happened to me earlier last month, I have some serious doubts.

With regards, from a very disappointed Belgian who still loves your country…

Gino Van de Walle

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