Arrested in spain ?

pudzey101

Hi my friend was arrested last week in spain for being drunk and causing damage to property , he was brought before a judge 2 hours before his flight home and signed some papers . He was suppose to appear in court again over there this week but coundnt as he woudnt be in the country , a spanish translator told him the letters basically stated what happend and 1 notice was for a court appearance , he asked me to ask on this what is his situation and who to contact in regards if ever returning to spain for a family holiday etc?

TIA

Pudz

Ps sorry if in wrong section

Auguste Comte

Depending on the seriousness of the offence, one carrying a sentence of one year or more, a European arrest warrant could be issued leading to your friend being lifted here and returned to Spain to face whatever awaits.

killbillvol2

Your 'friend' doesn't sound too bright. He gets himself in trouble in Spain, skips the country and reckons that his best source of information is to ask someone else to post a question on boards.

coylemj

Did he post cash bail or how did he manage to skip the country with a court date pending?

It's pretty standard practice for drunk tourists to be hauled before the courts and fined, the fine payable 'forthwith' i.e. there and then and off home you go.

Why was a case of drunk and disorderly involving a tourists adjourned? Something smells here. Can the OP expand on 'causing damage to property'?

ted1

Did this happen in Feurteventura or mainland Spain ?

pudzey101

This happened in fuerteventura , they brought in a judge on a Saturday 1 hour before his flight and was told ok to go . He has been trying to contact the Irish embassy there since but has not heard anything back as of yet

coylemj

pudzey101 wrote: »

This happened in fuerteventura , they brought in a judge on a Saturday 1 hour before his flight and was told ok to go . He has been trying to contact the Irish embassy there since but has not heard anything back as of yet

I don't believe the embassy will be of any assistance. If tourists were able to use them as a free legal advice centre, they'd be doing nothing else.

UK consular officials in Spain get plagued with this crap 365 days a year - 'can you get my friend out of jail'?, can you find out when I'm due to appear in court?, 'how do we post bail for my boyfriend?' etc. etc.

Typical response is that they will supply your 'friend' with a list of local lawyers who can conduct business in English.

How was poster ted1 able to pinpoint Fuerteventura as the probable location?

pudzey101

His court date is for 25th march over there I've been told , I have probably posted something about fuerteventura elsewhere

coylemj

pudzey101 wrote: »

His court date is for 25th march over there I've been told , I have probably posted something about fuerteventura elsewhere

If he manages to speak to someone in the Irish embassy in Spain, what advice or assistance is he expecting from them?

He has his court date and he's now back in Ireland so by any standards, this does not count as an 'emergency' as far as Irish consular officials will be concerned. The best assistance he can expect is a list of local lawyers who can deal with him in English. There is no Irish consulate or honorary consul on the island.

begbysback

There’s something really unethical about trawling through an op’s post history when they are asking for advice on behalf of someone else.

Unfortunately asking for advice “on behalf of someone else” has become necessary on boards due to the number of high horses that come galloping through.

Op find out if you can have this dealt with in your absence, and find out how much the fine would be for such offenses, then offer more.

Happy holidays

Mango Joe

Lol - How's your own high horse Begby? You've a very odd grasp on the subject of ethics....

Come back to me when some waster smashes your car or other personal property and then skips the Country.

I chose my side here and am quite sure who the victim actually is.

cgcsb

Your friend can be arrested here and sent to Spain, in which case the punishment will be more severe. Go back and face the music.

MrMusician18

coylemj wrote: »

If he manages to speak to someone in the Irish embassy in Spain, what advice or assistance is he expecting from them?

He has his court date and he's now back in Ireland so by any standards, this does not count as an 'emergency' as far as Irish consular officials will be concerned. The best assistance he can expect is a list of local lawyers who can deal with him in English. There is no Irish consulate or honorary consul on the island.

The Irish consular service is pathetic anyway. My family needed genuine assistance for dealing with a medical emergency and contacting the DFA for help was a total waste of time.

coylemj

begbysback wrote: »

There’s something really unethical about trawling through an op’s post history when they are asking for advice on behalf of someone else.

Nothing unethical about it at all. The facility is there precisely to expose hypocrites and trolls.

Not saying the OP falls into either category. But when someone asks for a 'friend' who is in legal difficulties, we all know what's happening.

pudzey101

It was a group of friends I traveled with my 3 best friends and other halfs , so im posting on their behalf as I said I'll help them out best I can ,

TimeToShine

Mango Joe wrote: »

Lol - How's your own high horse Begby? You've a very odd grasp on the subject of ethics....

Come back to me when some waster smashes your car or other personal property and then skips the Country.

I chose my side here and am quite sure who the victim actually is.

I agree on the victim stance but to be fair just because the facility is there it doesn't mean that it's our position to go through post history trying to find ways to discredit people. You could conceivably discredit every new post here based on that logic.

schemingbohemia

well the best advice you can give is for them to attend court on the day they should do. Anything else will likely end up causing them much more trouble in the years to come. You might be better off posting in the legal forum but to be honest you won't get much more info there.

PCros

pudzey101 wrote: »

It was a group of friends I traveled with my 3 best friends and other halfs , so im posting on their behalf as I said I'll help them out best I can ,

What exactly happened so we can help? The fact that they let him go seems like it wasn't that serious.

However if there is an outstanding fine against him, the next time he travels there the Spanish authorities will be informed when they receive advance passenger information from the airline.

pudzey101

PCros wrote: »

What exactly happened so we can help? The fact that they let him go seems like it wasn't that serious.

However if there is an outstanding fine against him, the next time he travels there the Spanish authorities will be informed when they receive advance passenger information from the airline.

He was very drunk and broke a door and glass in the apartment room , he has all the documents before they left him free , if it was me I would post them but it's not . he got in touch with the Irish embassy in Spain , I will have to find out later when talking to him what is being done or said

ted1

MrMusician18 wrote: »

The Irish consular service is pathetic anyway. My family needed genuine assistance for dealing with a medical emergency and contacting the DFA for help was a total waste of time.

They did a great job when I broke my leg on a Greek island.

OP, the islands may be more relaxed than the mainland.

What i recommend is contacting a local solicitor over there and they may be able to go to court and represent him

PCros

Essentially he's not free as he didn't attend court.

If he does nothing he will be stopped when he re-enters Spain and the problem is that they could drag it out just to make life difficult therefore ruining his next holiday.

If he attends the court date he'll probably pay a fine of approx €1k and he'd be on his way.

Sure update us when you hear back from your friend.

Credit Checker Moose

The Irish Embassy is only going to give a list of lawyers that speak English. They have no further role.

SortingYouOut

Credit Checker Moose wrote: »

The Irish Embassy is only going to give a list of lawyers that speak English. They have no further role.

No bueno

Dial Hard

pudzey101 wrote: »

He was very drunk and broke a door and glass in the apartment room , he has all the documents before they left him free , if it was me I would post them but it's not . he got in touch with the Irish embassy in Spain , I will have to find out later when talking to him what is being done or said

How did the police and then courts get involved? Did he not just offer to pay the hotel for the damage like a normal person??? It seems extremely odd that the hotel felt the need to get the police involved in what should have been an extremely trivial incident.

is_that_so

cgcsb wrote: »

Your friend can be arrested here and sent to Spain, in which case the punishment will be more severe. Go back and face the music.

Possibly, but anything under two years means no prison time. OP there are plenty of Spanish lawyers around in Ireland, officially or otherwise. Do a search like this "spanish lawyer ireland" or find a Spanish(Ireland) group on Facebook and ask there if anyone knows a lawyer.

facehugger99

I got a court summons to Spain for a speeding fine I hadn't paid about 10 years ago.

i just ignored it.

I've been in and out of the country dozens of times since with no issue.

coylemj

PCros wrote: »

However if there is an outstanding fine against him, the next time he travels there the Spanish authorities will be informed when they receive advance passenger information from the airline.

PCros wrote: »

If he does nothing he will be stopped when he re-enters Spain and the problem is that they could drag it out just to make life difficult therefore ruining his next holiday.

I seriously doubt that he will have any problems entering Spain in the future. I was in Lanzarote in February and we just waved our passports at the officials in glass booths, they couldn't have cared less. Why would the Spanish authorities screen incoming UK and Irish tourists when hundreds of thousands of tourists from Schengen countries (France, Germany, Italy etc.) enter the country every day with no checks whatsoever?

And see the previous post.

MrMusician18

ted1 wrote: »

They did a great job when I broke my leg on a Greek island.

OP, the islands may be more relaxed than the mainland.

What i recommend is contacting a local solicitor over there and they may be able to go to court and represent him

My sister, an Irish citizen, fell very ill while traveling through SE Asia. We asked the DFA for consular assistance, eg with translators and assisting with organising a potential medical evacuation back to Ireland but we're pretty much told "what help do you expect us to give to you?" Not a **** was given.

ted1

MrMusician18 wrote: »

My sister, an Irish citizen, fell very ill while traveling through SE Asia. We asked the DFA for consular assistance, eg with translators and assisting with organising a potential medical evacuation back to Ireland but we're pretty much told "what help do you expect us to give to you?" Not a **** was given.

Did she have insurance?

MOH

coylemj wrote: »

Nothing unethical about it at all. The facility is there precisely to expose hypocrites and trolls.

I thought that's what the report post facility and mods were there for

shenanagans

Was in Lanzarote within the last year. A group of people caused trouble in a bar. Damage done etc.

They were all brought to airport and sent home. Told they couldnt return. There's two police groups on Lanzarote. Don't know which monitors entry onto Island. Anyway they're details were taken and apparently they can't return..... According to bar owner.

If your friends passport details were taken I suspect he may not be returning.

coylemj

MOH wrote: »

I thought that's what the report post facility and mods were there for

If you couldn't view another poster's threads in other fora, you wouldn't be in a poistion to identify trolls and nuisance posters running multiple fictitious storylines and duplicate threads just to get attention. Mods can't be expected to do this for all threads and posters.

MrMusician18

ted1 wrote: »

Did she have insurance?

Don't see why this matters since we didn't ask for money loans or otherwise. They wouldn't give it to you anyway. My sister had a a good travel insurance policy that covered all her costs in a western style hospital. It would have paid for an air ambulance if required but it wasn't in the end after she eventually started responding to treatment.

We only sought "logistical" assistance for want of a better word.

It was particularly galling when a high profile dual citizen who got himself into bother in Egypt received gold standard consular assistance that he wasn't entitled to.

ted1

MrMusician18 wrote: »

Don't see why this matters since we didn't ask for money loans or otherwise. They wouldn't give it to you anyway. My sister had a a good travel insurance policy that covered all her costs in a western style hospital. It would have paid for an air ambulance if required but it wasn't in the end after she eventually started responding to treatment.

We only sought "logistical" assistance for want of a better word.

It was particularly galling when a high profile dual citizen who got himself into bother in Egypt received gold standard consular assistance that he wasn't entitled to.

It matters because the insurance company will arrange the air transport/medical evac etc and not the embassy.
For me they arranged local hospitals , interpretive services etc

PCros

coylemj wrote: »

I seriously doubt that he will have any problems entering Spain in the future. I was in Lanzarote in February and we just waved our passports at the officials in glass booths, they couldn't have cared less. Why would the Spanish authorities screen incoming UK and Irish tourists when hundreds of thousands of tourists from Schengen countries (France, Germany, Italy etc.) enter the country every day with no checks whatsoever?

And see the previous post.

That's very true but when there is an alert on the advance passenger information sent prior then they will check passports especially when the flight lands.

Its hard to know, if they leave his named marked then he runs the risk of being detained and alternatively they could just forget about it.

PhilOssophy

pudzey101 wrote: »

Hi my friend was arrested last week in spain for being drunk and causing damage to property

"All this drinking, violence, destruction of property, is this really what we think of when we think of the Irish"?

Effects

Dial Hard wrote: »

How did the police and then courts get involved? Did he not just offer to pay the hotel for the damage like a normal person??? It seems extremely odd that the hotel felt the need to get the police involved in what should have been an extremely trivial incident.

Maybe it's happened before and the person just skips home, not willing to pay for the damage caused, as they are at home in a foreign country.

EagererBeaver

PhilOssophy wrote: »

"All this drinking, violence, destruction of property, is this really what we think of when we think of the Irish"?

*John Bull's Fish & Chips blows up*

Yay!

MOH

coylemj wrote: »

If you couldn't view another poster's threads in other fora, you wouldn't be in a poistion to identify trolls and nuisance posters running multiple fictitious storylines and duplicate threads just to get attention. Mods can't be expected to do this for all threads and posters.

If I think someone's trolling, I'll flag the post and let a mod look into it and lock if necessary instead of backseat modding the thread.

If someone posts asking advice for an issue, I'll take them at face value and answer if I can. If they're "running multiple fictitious storylines and duplicate threads just to get attention" that's a bit sad of them, but doesn't really impact me.

But threads constantly clogged up with people attacking OPs and debating their validity just make the whole site pointless (Consumer Issues is a disaster area these days in that regard).

Plus it's pointless - if anything, that actually feeds into the attention seeking of both the OP, and the person who feels so clever and self important for "unmasking" them. Having the thread locked ends it and stops wasting everyone's time.

6541

I had an experience in a Spanish Police station where I was reporting a lost wallet. The cops thought I was a hooligan and were in general fairly aggressive. i wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of the cops in Spain.

Stratvs

coylemj wrote: »

I was in Lanzarote in February and we just waved our passports at the officials in glass booths, they couldn't have cared less.

Same experience in Lanzarote here. They always seemed like they didn't care.

Aena the airport operators have in the last year installed booths in Tenerife where you enter the passport into the machine, it scans your face & compares with photo and you also place finger on a pad. You then use that finger on the door pad to exit into the baggage area. A rollout across the Canarian archipelago is probably likely and I assume it can if needed identify any passports previously flagged.

VG31

coylemj wrote: »

I seriously doubt that he will have any problems entering Spain in the future. I was in Lanzarote in February and we just waved our passports at the officials in glass booths, they couldn't have cared less.

They don't scan passports at Madrid either, only took a quick glance at my passport.

Yamanoto

It's possible that they'd cross-reference API against a police database and pull a passenger aside

coylemj

Yamanoto wrote: »

It's possible that they'd cross-reference API against a police database and pull a passenger aside

I have my doubts that the API data is put to any use. They probably gather the data to keep a few hundred civil servants in work, then just do nothing with it. Same as the charade whereby Italian hotels ask you to hand over your passport when you check in.

While at the same time, thousands of people from Schengen countries cross the border every day with no checks whatsoever. No wonder the immigation people in Spanish airports look bored stiff when they're supposed to be checking the passports of UK and Irish tourists!

Stratvs

coylemj wrote: »

Because they don't have to check people arriving from most other European countries - they sail straight through to the arrivals area the same way we do when we arrive in UK airports.

Once when we arrived in either Lanz or GC can't remember which, the bus from plane with us all on pulled up at wrong terminal entry ( Schengen entry ). We didn't realise until were coming out with bags to main terminal when there was a big to do and security tried stopping everyone from the Irish flight from leaving the terminal. So we waited a bit then the airport staff all had a big meeting seemingly not sure what to do. Then passengers started drifting away and the staff just gave up and left.

EagererBeaver

coylemj wrote: »

Because they don't have to check people arriving from most other European countries - they sail straight through to the arrivals area the same way we do when we arrive in UK airports.

I know they don't have to. I live in Spain and travel within Schengen all the time.

I still don't get its relevance to why they'd be any more or less bored.

pudzey101

Thread can be closed/deleted , he got the Irish embassy in contact with his lawyer and was told forget about and not to worry

Thanks all .