With the assistance of the law firm, a case was won for driving without a license plate by a young man who was deliberately misled by police officers to drive his car after removing his license plates.
Driving without a registration number – general remarks
Driving without a license plate is an act that the legislator considers dangerous to society, not least because it prevents the identification of the vehicle and thus makes it impossible to effectively enforce compliance with the legal requirements relating to motor vehicles. Precisely because of the public danger of this act, it has been elevated to an offence that is subject to punishment.
This raises the controversial question of what type of offense this is and what the penalty for committing it should be. The controversy arises from the fact that public relations in Bulgaria are subject to excessive legal regulation, which in turn leads to unclear legislation and contradictory practices in the resolution of identical cases.
This problem is also observed when driving without a a7> registration number. This is so due to the circumstance that in principle this act constitutes an administrative violation, which is regulated by the adoption of the current Law on traffic on roads in 1999. Over the years the only thing that has been increased a31> increased the amount of the penalty, and at a35> the present moment it is deprivation of the right of the guilty driver to drive a motor vehicle for a period of 6 to 12 months. Simultaneously with this penalty shall also be imposed a fine in the amount of 200 to 500 BGN.
Due to the increase in the number of such acts, in 2016, the legislature took the extremely misguided step of criminalizing driving without a license plate, providing for a penalty of imprisonment for up to one year or a fine of between five hundred and one thousand leva.
Why “wrong step”?
There are several reasons why criminalizing driving without a license plate should be considered a mistake.
Firstly, the legislator has provided for a criminal offense that is absolutely identical to the administrative offense. In other words, a driver who drives a motor vehicle that is not duly registered commits both a criminal offense and an administrative offense. However, this creates a problem in practice, as criminal and administrative liability cannot be applied simultaneously, thus leading to different treatment of persons who have committed the same offense, i.e., in one case, a driver will be convicted of a crime and this will be reflected in their criminal record, while in another case, they will only be fined and deprived of their right to drive a motor vehicle.
Such an approach is unacceptable and jeopardizes the predictability of justice, which is part of the fundamental right to a fair trial. And in addition to this, it creates conditions for unequal treatment at the discretion of law enforcement authorities without clear criteria when to apply the criminal offense and a27> apply the criminal offense and when the offense is committed.
Secondly, the very nature of the offense of “driving without a license plate” obliges the court to acquit the defendant of criminal liability and impose an administrative penalty of between one thousand and five thousand leva if he has a clean criminal record. There is no provision for the revocation of the driver’s license, which in turn renders meaningless the activation of the punitive-repressive state apparatus and the significantly higher costs of prosecuting a crime, since in these cases criminal liability turns out to be lighter.
Thirdly, imposing criminal liability for such an act in cases where it was committed during the probation period for another crime of a general nature may lead to the activation of the suspended sentence under the conditional sentence, i.e., simply for driving without a license plate, the driver may effectively be deprived of his liberty, which in turn represents an unnecessary expense for the taxpayer.
Precisely because of the above problems, the responsible state authorities have recently been focusing more on imposing administrative penalties for such acts than on criminal liability.
Driving without a registration number – the case
Daniel* was stopped for inspection by a traffic police patrol and informed that he would be tested for alcohol and drug use with a technical device. He agreed to the breathalyzer test, and his sample was negative. However, Daniel did not agree to the drug test because he had had a wisdom tooth removed two days earlier and had been prescribed strong painkillers. This led to concerns that he might receive a false positive result for drug use. For this reason, he requested a prescription for a medical examination so that he could provide biological samples at a medical facility.
Despite Daniel’s explicit consent to provide blood and urine samples for testing, his driver’s license was confiscated and his car’s license plates were removed. Since he lived two minutes away by car from the checkpoint, Daniel decided to ask the police officers if he could leave his car in front of his house instead of on the busy boulevard where the check was carried out. In response to his question, he was twice assured by the police officers that not only could he leave his car in front of his home, but he could also drive it to the medical facility to provide biological samples.
Despite this, however, Daniel decided that after all he would leave the car in the parking lot in front of a12> his house and would use a taxi to the medical facility. So he did, and immediately after parking, next to him stopped another police car, officers from which asked Daniel for his documents to check them. He explained that two minutes earlier he had been stopped by their colleagues, who had taken his license plate numbers, because he refused to be tested with a drug test a54> for use of narcotic substances and quickly, so that he could appear on time on time at the medical facility for giving blood and urine samples.
When they heard this, the police officers deliberately delayed him, reducing the time available for him to appear at the medical facility. Daniel insisted that he be released or that he be issued new documents with a new deadline for appearing to provide biological samples. Not only did the police officers fail to release him so that he could prove that he had not used drugs, but they also called in a traffic police patrol, ostensibly to issue a new medical examination order.
At the scene arrived the same team from the “Traffic Police”, which had checked two minutes earlier. One of the police officers issued him a ticket for a19> for establishing an administrative violation for driving without a registered number plate, despite the fact that it was precisely he him assured that he could drive his car. At the same time as this he issued a document for repeated refusal to a43> be tested for use of narcotic substances, despite the fact that neither was required by Daniel to give a sample at a54> this second test, nor did a59> he has refused to have it done such.
* In order to preserve attorney-client privilege, the name has been changed.
Driving without a registration number – the decision of the court
Based on the administrative violation report, a penalty order was issued for driving without a license plate, but during the court proceedings, it was established that Daniel had indeed asked the police officers if he could personally retrieve his car and had received a positive answer to this question twice.
Precisely because of this circumstance, the court ruled that Daniel did not intentionally drive without a license plate, as he was aware that he had the right to do so.
With the revocation of the penalty order for driving without a registration number, the court awarded Daniel the full amount of the legal aid costs incurred.
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Silvia Petkova Sole Proprietorship Law Firm provides qualified legal assistance from experienced lawyers in cases challenging acts and penalty orders issued by the Traffic Police, including for driving without a registration number.
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