The city of Barcelona has annulled six fine proceedings against a couple from Bueu (province of Pontevedra) annulled. According to the city council, this was a “one-off error” in automatic number plate reading that led to incorrect matches. Since September 2024, the couple had repeatedly been accused of breaching the low-emission zones in the Catalan capital.
According to the notices, journeys had been Travessera de les Cortsneighbourhood, at Avenida de Madrid and Paral·lel recorded. Each penalty was set at 200 euros, making 1,200 euros in total. The people concerned told the newspaper 20minutos that they had not been in Barcelona and that their car never left Pontevedra province. The couple are 78 years old; the husband said they had been “desperate”. They both turned to Gestoría Bueu, whose representative, Francisco José Domínguez, took on the case.
On the technical process, the city said camera data were first sent to the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona and checked against vehicle registration data there. Unauthorised journeys then triggered notices, which were sent by the Institut Municipal d’Hisenda According to media reports and city records, three proceedings were initially annulled, followed by three more. The payments were therefore waived, but the couple say they incurred effort and costs in appealing.
The case joins documented individual instances in which administrative records are marked “error matrícula” or “resolució al·legacions i anul·lació expedient (error matrícula)”. Such cases show that municipal bodies carry out formal checks when an incorrect number plate reading is alleged.
The city council describes this as an exceptional case. At the same time, it draws attention to the susceptibility of automated systems to errors and the importance of transparent correction processes. For Barcelona, monitoring low-emission zones is a key instrument of air-quality policy; the large-scale, automated recording of number plates requires reliable data chains and clear responsibilities for capture, matching and issuing notices. In this case, the city’s review showed that annulment was the only logical course of action.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).