Brits are cheating Spanish police by breaking mobility scooter rules and “driving silly” whilst drunk in Benidorm, a local vendor has warned.
Mario Torres, 46, who owns Amigo 24: Personal Mobility, told this website that the vast majority of scooter renters are well-behaved and stick to the rules, but a minority break the six-year-old law regulating the trade and drive dangerously.
“All the summer [it] is the same: problems, problems”, he said.
“You know sometimes people drive normally, sometimes you have two on a single scooter.
“When we see it, we stop it, and we take the scooter away. Normally nothing happens. I mean, 99 percent of the renters are normal.
“Maybe one percent, maybe in summer two percent, [the renters] they are breaking the rules. The police stop people and they call us.”
Since 2018, the police in Benidorm have been able to take mobility scooters away from anyone under the age of 55 and issue a fine up to £420.
Every renter has to travel with the contract they signed with their rental company and cannot pass it on to family members or friends.
“They [riders] have to have the contract with them all the time”, Mario explained. “If people stop you, you have to show the contract… or you have the Blue Badge – then you can rent it.
“If you don’t have the contract then you have a problem. If we rent the scooter to someone less than 55 years old it’s our fault. Then the fine is for us.”
When Express.co.uk tested whether or not vendors would rent a mobility scooter to our reporter, who was under the age of 55, we found that they stuck rigidly to the rules and had signs in their shops reminding customers of the regulations.
The day before Mario spoke to this website, our reporter visited his shop and an employee, who wished not to be named, revealed how Brits and others break the rules.
The staffer claimed that a member of a holiday party over the age of 55 would go to a vendor and rent a mobility scooter legally. After signing the contract they would go to another vendor and do the same thing.
They would continue doing this until they’ve rented a mobility scooter for every member of their party, including tourists that are underage.
Mario confirmed that this practice went on and added that sometimes people over the age of 55 simply lend their legitimately rented scooter to someone under age.
When asked whether it was only Brits who conducted themselves poorly on mobility scooters and who broke the rules, Mario claimed that the problem wasn’t confined to one nationality.
“Spanish, British. Everyone [is to blame]”, he claimed.
“Now in summer there are many families. It is a big problem with the family because the grandfather, the father, the children [all drive the mobility scooters]. You know it’s a big problem. You cannot control [it] all the time.
He added that the worst culprits were groups of drunk young men. He said: “Maybe people between 20 and 30, they drink and they go with the scooter – silly driving.”
“But this kind of people, when the police see them, they stop them and they take the scooter away.”
Despite the prevalence of the issue and Mario’s insistence it’s not improving, expat Nigel Pope believes the regulations are having a positive impact.
The barman-turned-TikTok star told this website: “I see the police cracking down all the time. You know they’re checking people have got the right paperwork. So I’m seeing less and less of it.
“I’ve seen it happen obviously, but this year hardly any, you know. People are adhering to the rules.”
Notwithstanding Nigel’s claim that reckless and under-age mobility scooter driving was becoming less common, the day Express.co.uk spoke to Mario, our reporter saw two young men who appeared to have been drinking riding a tandem mobility scooter at speed through the streets of Benidorm.
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