Mojacar townhall has rejected the appeal lodged against the five €500 fines given to a bunch of youths drinking water on the beach in the summer.
The youths had appealed against their fines as the first step in legally fighting the “unjust” fine. The townhall had to consider the complaint and decide whether to ratify the local police action.
Naturally enough, rather than allowing the whole sorry episode to quietly drop out of the public imagination, the townhall has staunchly stood up for its police force and ordered the fines to stand.
It’s worth pointing out that opposition parties have denounced orders by the Mayor for her police force to fine away to swell the towns coffers over the summer.
The youths from Murcia have told their local paper that the next steps will be the courts.
According to the story issued by the five family members, they had been to their grandparents wedding anniversary earlier on and after that had ended, had decided to go to a local club.
As there was a queue to get in (despite this being about 3 in the morning), the cousins, who weren’t drinking alcohol, stood by their cars and were sharing a couple of bottles of water when the locales turned up, and fined them 500€ for drinking on the beach.
When challenged that they weren’t drinking alcohol, and were in no way being rowdy, the locales replied that nowhere do the rules say that alcohol has to be involved.
The youths, in a fury, drove around until they found a Guardia Civil traffic control and volunteered for a breath test, which was negative in all cases.