Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Notification of Traffic Offence committed in Spain

Following a driving trip through France and Spain, I have received a fine for speeding in Spain. The notification states the date and time of the offence as 14:00 hours on the 25th May, 2025. Both my Dashcam and Garmin GPS trip log show I was in France at the time of the alleged offence. However, for the Direccion General de Trafico (DGT) to have a record of my car registration, a speed camera must have recorded an image of my car, but a copy of it was not included with the notification letter.

As both the dashcam and Garmin have recorded the same location and time the camera must be at fault in recording time. That being so, its accuracy in registering speed must be in doubt.

Communicating with the DGE isn’t straightforward. It has to be by post or telex. Email is not an option.

As I will probably return to Spain in the same car I don’t want to encounter problems in the future, so I’m inclined to grudgingly pay the fine on the basis it’s not worth wasting the time and effort to challenge it. However, knowing the DGE is wrong as to the time of any offence makes this unpalatable.

Has anyone had experience of dealing with Spanish speeding fines?

Possible thoughts.

If you are a member of the RAC AA or some other program prepare a summary as you have above and send it to them asking for advice, in many cases cover for legal and other things is included when abroad.

Dumb question but have you factored the 1-2 hour difference? Are you dashcams on UK time against local time in region ? Just a thought ?

Has your plate been cloned, any other reports of oddness, given you had been that way it is an outside possibility but you never know.

Looking at the interweb there does appear to be a pay it and ask for proof (to get the half price if nothing else) however the chances of reclaiming may be a stretch based on comments on line.

To my suspicious mind, and Spanish plod might wonder the same thing, its odd that you mention dashcam and gps log but dont say that you know yourself you werent in Spain. After all their electronics say you were. Could it be a scam? Have you traced to communications origin etc?

Anyway, Spanish bureaucracy can be very long winded and old fashioned. No experience of their police but other issues dealt with at the local ayuntamineto , which is where local police are based, took forever and needed to be in Spanish.

If the fine is not a silly amount, it may well be easier simply to pay.

I had a similar issue in Venice….or should I say going over the bridge onto it.
I got a fine for speeding in a hire car and at the time recorded we had parked in a car park and were on a vaperetto.
It proved impossible to get anyone from the car parking co to respond and I reluctantly could not challenge the fine so accepted the hire companies charge on my card !
The Sunday Times had a small piece on this subject recently and I think some EU countries follow up and places like France don’t ? Cannot remember but still have it somewhere for reference.
Having done thousands of continental miles over the last few years and many since Brexit . I have not had any fines although I know I have triggered the odd camera. Every time I come home I ‘worry’ for a month or so - in that period now…. Getting a laser gun stop does trigger ‘payable fines’ in some countries we visit in our UK car and I would accept that - thankfully been a tad lucky on occasions.

Once I got ‘done’ but braked hard, swung left into a residential side road, new houses bing built and drove into someone’s open garage ……..true story, came out 15 mins later and drove past the police officers . I still pass this spot regularly when visiting this country . Hope this does not make me a bad person and I am now driving slower so perhaps it had the desired effect.
Best MM
PS Suggest you pay up if you are taking the car again.

Thanks for the replies.

Alistair, the Garmin automatically sets the time to that of the time zone it is in. The Dashcam doesn’t so video clips from it show British Summer Time. I have software called Dashcam Viewer which displays the camera image alongside its location on Google maps. The location at 13:00 hours shown by Dashcam Viewer is the same as that shown on Garmin’s Basecamp map at 14:00 hours European time.

Howard & Morganmike I’m inclined to pay up. The fine is trivial compared to the cost of the trip and I’ve better things to do with my time.

I’m fine(no pun intended). The Venice one taken from c/c by car hire company. The other was just a laser gun ( no camera) and they stop you to give a ticket in this continental country …..I did not pass them for 15 mins and no problem.
Only had 3 fines (all ‘stupid’*in 60 years of driving which might give my age away if good at maths) - early car test and pass.
Luv to all MM
PS *. I passed a police car on the motorway at 50mph and got stopped. It appeared the company that sold me the speedboat I was towing at the time told me the limit was 50 but way back then it was 40. After a nice chat about the boat I was confident of a “drive carefully young man” …but know a ticket. The other 2 equally stupid.

Hello Ken

I'm Spanish. And I can tell you that a fine without two clear pictures of your car passing in front of the camera/radar is FAKE. Did you receive it via email or via regular mail? Physical paper?

In Spain it is mandatory that the fine is accompanied by two photos of you passing by.

And I can tell you: you can perfectly pay via their official webpage. But I seriously doubt your fine is a real one. Sounds really fake. And FYI it's quite common to receive these fake fines at random, hoping someone takes the bait and puts in his credit card...

If you want to, please send me a PM and we share our emails so you can send me a scanned copy of what you received and I can check here on the DGT webpage if it’s a real fine or fake.

Best regards