flieder

Hello,

I hope someone can help me here. We got a traffic ticket in July 2014 from a trip to Italy a year prior to that. As soon as we got the ticket, we paid the ticket plus the late fees. And now, after one year later, we just received another letter saying that we owe 221 Euros because we did not provide drivers personal data and license information (as I understand from the letter). I just re-read the first letter we received in 2014, and it says the following "You are advised to complete the attached reply form (point D) and send it to the following address, if you do not pay this financial penalty: Municipal Police Department...."
Am I incorrect in understanding that I was supposed to send the form if I don't want to pay the penalty?
Since we paid the balance we did not sent the form.

I find this really ridiculous way of getting more money from tourists. Has anyone had same issue with Italian police? I don't want to pay this fee. Should I fill the letter and send it to the email address provided? Would that change anything?

Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks.

tom_mn

My unhelpful reply is that there are SO MANY posts like this about car rentals in Italy that I refuse to ever rent a car there. Good luck.

sandralist

I sincerely doubt you are being targeted as tourists for extortion. Paper pushers inside traffic authorities have very little authority to create exemptions if you made a mistake in your last attempt to resolve this matter. They can only apply the law. Perhaps this is their mistake, however.

It is hard to advise about what you should do now without having more details about what you just received in the mail. Is it in English? (Or are you translating from Italian?) Are you sure it is legit? What commune is it from?

sandralist

I meant to ask if the instructions from the first letter you quoted were in English or did you translate them from the Italian?

sandralist

And don't send personal data until you are certain it is required to resolve the issue and to a true Italian traffic authority.

flieder

Hi,

Yes, the letter is in English, I didn't translate it. The quote I wrote above is an excerpt from the letter as it is. Not that I know anything about traffic authorities over there, but looks like it's legit. It says its from: "Servizio Di Polizia Municipale Comune Di Roccasecca Dei Volsci Piazza Umberto I, 9 04010 Roccasecca Dei Volsci (LT) - Italy".

It is very frustrating to deal with this issue for the last 2 years.

I'm wondering if we could email them (there is an email address on the letter) and explain that we did not send the information because it didn't ask for it. I really don't want to pay this fee.

sandralist

To my way of thinking, if the Italian authority sends you instructions in English, it is up to them to make sure the English is unambiguous. From what you quoted, it looks confusing to me, and I am being objective. However, I am not an Italian authority, so I don't know if they would agree with me!

Unless the second letter threatens you with yet more draconian fines for delay, I would immediately e-mail them in English and explaining to them their mistake, and if at all possible, scan a copy of that first set of confusing instructions. Tell them you won't be paying the fine without further explanation from them, but would will be sending along the personal data by regular mail or fax if they will provide you with a fax number.

Before you do send that data, I would google up the address given and make sure it is legit. In fact, I would wait a bit first to see how they respond to the e-mail.

Today is a holiday in Italy, so you might as well wait until everybody is back at their desks later in the week.

Hope it works out! I have little patience with tourists who won't pay a traffic fine when it was their mistake, but I honestly think you were misled by a poor set of instructions. They apparently knew you did not speak Italian, and they have to take responsibility for the quality of their English in communicating what they needed from you.

One last thought -- never hurts to tell them how much you hope everything can be resolved and not pick a fight and try to work with them. Hope they are reasonable. And if you were in that rather remote town in Italy to visit the graves of your beloved ancestors, never hurts to mention that either.

flieder

Thank you so much Sandralist! I will send them an email and explain our situation and hope they will be reasonable.

Christina

I would have interpreted it to mean the same thing you did, you need to send the form if you didn't intend to pay.

I'm astounded Italy is going to all this trouble over a traffic fine for years from a foreign citizen who doesn't live in Italy. And translating things into English, also (even if not done well).

clarkgriswold

http://translate.google.com/translat...D5&prev=search

flieder

clarkgriswold: Thank you so much for the link! As I understand we have to be present to appeal. Since we live in the USA and not planning to be in Italy anytime soon, we won't be able to do that.

flieder

I just realized the address to which we should have sen the drivers information is not a police authority but a third party. Has any of you know about this place? Is it a third party dealing with international cases?

"Euten S.R.L - Via A. De Gasperi, 4 - 05030 Montefranco TR - Italy"

sandralist

No, I don't know anything about it, but over a dinner in a restaurant, I had the thought: "You should create a dummy e-mail account to deal with this." Just go to yahoo or hotmail to create an address that is new and unique.

It is entirely possible that a slow-moving commune is mindlessly processing past infractions at a snail's pace, and in their eyes this is legit. But you can't -- or at least I can't -- totally rule out the possibility that someone has figured out how to scam people using past tickets.

So I would calmly respond by saying you obviously can't be expected to hand over personal information and money without more clarification and proof that the senders are legitimate, and put the burden on them to explain what's going on.

sandralist

(meaning, as far as you are concerned, the fine was paid and settled according to the instructions they sent in English and according to your records. So what is this? Up to them to clarify.)