Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A Frenchman has been asked to pay a fine after cops claim his Renault-built tractor had been caught speeding at 91mph on a Spanish road.
Pierrot Amoureux, from the commune of Retiers in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in north-western France’s Brittany region, is the president of the Relais pour L’Emploi association, which helps jobless people secure employment and which owns the tractor.
He was surprised when he got notification that the tractor had been speeding in Spain, doing 146 kph (91 mph) in a 120 kph (75 mph) zone and when told he had to pay or appeal, he suggested that Renault should cough up for the fine for making such a fast farm vehicle.
Cops said the fine may have been because someone had copied his number plate, and that the Frenchman should file a complaint for fraud to avoid having to pay the 100-EUR (85-GBP) fine, that could be reduced to just 50 EUR (42.50 GBP) if it was paid immediately.
He said: “We received a notification that we had violated the highway code in Spain on 23rd January at 9:39am in the Leon region.”
But the tractor at the time was in Brittany in north-western France, miles away, so Pierrot went to the cops who told him despite the fact that the tractor could not have gone that fast he would have to either pay, or file a complaint for fraud to get it officially cancelled.
He said: “We thought the fine was a scam. So we went to the local police station and they said we should file a motion saying that our number plate number had been usurped.”
Amoureux joked he would “ask Renault for a financial contribution in view of the robustness and performance of the tractor” which he said had been “certified by the Spanish administration!”
When contacted by Central European News (CEN), the Relais pour L’Emploi said that they had filed a complaint with the French police and sent “all the paperwork back to the Spanish.” They added that they were “waiting to hear back from the Spanish authorities”.
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