An employee of the State Automobile Inspection in Plovdiv took down the license plates and confiscated the driver's license of a worker in the municipal enterprise "Parking and repatriation" because he towed his private car due to improper parking.
The municipality will appeal the drawn up act, and at the same time the DAI has started an internal investigation into the case, which should establish whether there is abuse of official position.
The scandal broke out after the municipal repatriation vehicle picked up a car parked incorrectly in front of the Plovdiv traffic police, reports BNT.
"After we passed the spider, we found a violation of a car that had stopped in front of a sign prohibiting stopping and parking, and accordingly we took measures to remove it from the place. After that, we brought the car here and left for another signal", says Nikolay Atanasov – employee of OP "Parking and repatriation".
During that time, the owner of the lifted car, who turned out to be an employee of the Plovdiv traffic police, discovered its absence and went to the penal parking lot to pay the fine.
"Two persons are coming - one with a DAI uniform. He constantly insults, threatens our employees, also claims that he will come back and - I quote - "you will see what will happen," says Nushan Derkalestanian – OP "Parking and repatriation".
In his anger, the traffic police inspector stuck the slip with his fine on the kiosk in the penalty parking lot. After that, together with a colleague, he waited for the spider to return again and began a surprise inspection. The driver of the tow truck was issued a report, his license was taken away, and the license plates were removed.
"The detected violations are – lack of a license to operate public transport, lack of a tachograph, a waybill and a bill of lading," says Nushan Derkalestanian – OP "Parking and repatriation".
"They said that they must take my license, they must stop the car. I am not working at the moment - I neither work nor drive my personal car. They tied my hands everywhere," says Dimitar Stoyanov - the driver of the spider.
Dimitar signed the drawn up deed with objections. The director of the OP “Parking and repatriation” also has them, so they will appeal the fine to the traffic police.
"We believe that all the findings are groundless, since the municipal enterprise "Parking and repatriation" the city of Plovdiv does not carry out commercial activities. Our function, as a municipal enterprise, is the prevention of administrative violations on the territory of the Plovdiv municipality", believes Nushan Derkalestanian – OP "Parking and repatriation".
A day after the scandalous case, an inspector of the State Automobile Administration from Sofia arrived in Plovdiv to check the actions of their employee. From "Automotive Administration" for BNT they stated that the drawn up act was due to the lack of a license for cargo transportation.
"Let's check the case, find out what types of transport, what vehicles - then we can give some kind of conclusion. We cannot claim that there are illegal transports without having established the facts and circumstances of the carried out inspection", commented Anton Stavrev, "Automotive Administration".
Due to the fact that they have one less vehicle and a driver with a revoked license, the municipal enterprise operates at a reduced volume.