Portugal's tax authority has failed to understand why six motorists have been let off fines for travelling on formerly free SCUT roads without paying tolls.
The administrative court in Braga recently annulled the six fines in a landmark case cheered by many motorists and legal experts but the tax authority may appeal to the higher court to get these decisions reversed.
It was the welcome view of the Braga court that it is not enough for the state simply to identify the registration of the vehicle for which it is allegaed the toll had not been paid, it is necessary also to prove the identity of the driver.
The court also considered that quoting at length the various laws that allegedly had been broken by non-payment is not sufficient to obtain a guilty verdict.
The baffling list of decree laws is a form of lazy prosecution and in the court’s view a motorist under suspicion of evading a toll payment has got no chance of unravelling and understanding these laws and should not be expected to divine which part of the legislation is relevant to the case in hand.
