Justice/denuncia:

[shirley]

The one thing here in G.C. is that the justice system is very fair,
Nobody can threaten you harm, or slander you untruthfully, and get away with it, like they do in england.
IF THEY DO, you go to your local police station who issue a denuncia on them.
The guarda civil deliver that denuncia to them,(and it is within three months) That the person threatening you or slandering you has to appear in court and answer your allegations about them,
everything is heard out from both sides, and a fair judgement is then given, the guilty party is penalised financialy and has to pay there victim an amount that is decided to the injured party.

You can also denunce the local police for ignoring you on any complaint you have about them, and they (fairly) end up in court in the same position as any member of the public.

You can even denunce the local mayor (if you dare)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Locals do quite a lot.)

Everything in the justice system is very fair here.

[karen]

I dont agree with you. My friend was seriously injured after being hit by a 4 x 4 while crossing the road in puerto rico 3 years ago. She was very lucky to survive.

When Lawyers started to get involved surprise surprise the Police had no record of the incident. Disappeared of the face of Gran Canaria.

Wheres the justice there. A british holiday maker suffers serious injuries, is flown back to the UK in an air ambulance and wow no one knows anything about it.:angry:

[shirley]

I am very, very sorry to hear about your friend, I hope that she is ok now.
I am merely talking from a residents point of view. I do know of a death of a cuban man age 32, It was an accident sticking his head in a unelco box
on a sunday afternoon to help someone out whos electric had cut off.
That unelco box should have been locked,AND NO ACCESS INSIDE IT FOR HIM AT ALL ONLY UNELCO STAFF GOING IN THERE.wether the lock was broken and thats how he got in it, or wether he broke in, nothing was ever established, but he was an electrician (not fully qualified) though working on the island. That was never reported in any press , unelco were not reproached for it ,It seems to me that things are hushed up to not upset the tourists coming here on matters like this.And nothing goes down about it in any records either, and as you say nothing is done about it.I know its a bit late now, But if you had the other car no,and there passport number, and im sure the guarda civil were on the scene. If a denuncia had been put in ,it would have been a different case. (Thats the thing).
You have to state to the guarda civil that youd like to issue a denuncia on the other person who caused your friends accident and fill in the required forms for this. THE LAW here works in a (very different) way to england. you have to( know what to do,) and fill in the required paperwork.For the police to act here,(on some matters) This is why im on here to help people get to know the ropes here.(I dont know everything,) but what i do know i hope helps somebody.It will get better here, as now the police here are going to chase people in other countries for motoring offences committed here.They couldnt do that before as theyd be wasting there time.But now they are getting linked up, with police forces in other countries, it wont be long before any visitors get away with anything at all here.( if it was another tourist who did this to your friend,)If it wasnt, well a denuncia has to be issued to sort the guilty party out.And the victim has to do that for themselves.Thats just the way it works here, Depends on the crime, wether the police will go into action themselves on things for you.

[CSI Fan]

Making a denuncia isnt as easy as you are making out Shirley. You must either speak Spanish or take someone with you who can act as a translator. ie Marcus or someone who is fluent in Spanish. The police will not entertain you if you dont.
The denuncia is actually taken in Spanish and then translated verbally by the translator to the person making it to make sure they understand what has been written. This is then signed by the translator (who has to show their identification, this is also written into the denuncia) the police oficer taking the denuncia and the person making it saying that they understand it.

It may see a simple procedure but finding the translator could pose problems to some people.

[shirley]

I TOTALY AGREE with you csi fan.(Sorry if i made it sound so easy,)
Back to the laungage problem again, And getting the right people to help you here. Any lawyer would help you do this here.(one who speaks english)Or any friend who speaks spanish. But at least a lawyer could explain to you if you have a case or not, or you will win or not, Paying a translater can sometimes cost a lot more than a lawyer, (who can kill two birds for you at once) by explaining the denuncia forms to you, and explain how the law works here to you, Whats allowed to be done to you here and whats not.What is classed as trivial in england, no matter how damaged you are by it) Is certainly not classed as trivial here at all. You call somebody a con artiste, or threaten to physicaly harm them, even in jest.And you have committed a criminal offence here, (no its not a police matter) its a civil offence matter. And no it doesnt cost you a fortune to take them to court. Its just like you say csi fan how you do it(.But you do it yourself and its done quickly.)(one other thing you do need a witness to the offence on you.) It helps you ,You do not have to wait for the police to act for you, and there is no CPS here to throw it out on you either.like there is in england

[J1969]

"The one thing here in G.C. is that the justice system is very fair,"Are you qualified to make such statements ?On a slightly different topic..........I found the police totally incompetent and unprofessional.....I phoned 112 as it was an emergency. This was a total waste of time. The operator was a complete disaster and eventually I had to hangup. Next stop....a police station.......to be told that "its not our problem, can you go to another police force". The first conversation was in english, the second in fluent spanish. Also, they never did phone me back.When are people going to learn !!!!!

[shirley]

A lot of advice is given by lots of people on here. The advice they give is as theyv found things out for themselves here (Im no different,) and can be wrong sometimes like anybody else.
Im sorry for your experience it must have been quite traumatic for you.The 112 well thats staff, just like 999 in england it does happen, you dont get the help you need, when you need it. off the people you should get it off.As ive said before on other posts, There are 2 police forces on the island and they each deal with different things. (That is a problem here not knowing which one to go to in the first place.) Experiences that i have here (id head for the guarda civil everytime,) as they are the real police force of spanish law here.And that force is the one to go to to issue a denuncia on someonealso, The local police THE BLUE uniforms work from the town halls and are paid by the town halls.local matters, building matters,policing illegal building work goin on, I still dont know exactly, what each of them is responsible fully for on the island, they do seem to mix there jobs as well.When i was in england once working in someones business,I reported a man who had shown me false police identity card pretending he was a policeman, to gain entry, When i phoned the police, i just got you are not in our area,then vice versa on phoning the one i was told to phone.I was on a borderline, and the police station staff in either didnt even know there own areas. So its no different there on ( ignorant unhelpfull staff.) than it is here.at times . Just hope you got it sorted out in the end.

[karen]

my friend is on the road to recovery but it has been a long road.

the police apparently took the driver away and i was told his car was also taken away on the back of a pick up truck.

there were loads of the police at the accident and two of them came with me to our first stop at the small hospital in arguinean (wrong spelling but you will know where I mean), these officers only wanted to know what apartments we were staying in and what room number. that was the first and only time the police spoke to me.

two officers came to the hospital but only spoke with the reception. i was the only witness at the accidend and no police officers wanted to speak to me. i was given the lovely Marcus' telephone number. Marcus spoke to the police for me who advised Marcus that they had all the info they required.

Anyway on a lighter note Suz 's consultant has sent a final Medical Report off to the Lawyers who will now send this over to the people in GC. they are putting in a claim through the sort of motor insurers bureau type of thing that we have in the Uk. we are hoping or rather i am hoping that it will settle out of court.

[shirley]

Very glad !.that you have something that you can do, and have some help doing it, and you might get somewhere now, From what you have told me, and other things people have told me, It seems to me then that because its tourists, the police dont want to do the paperwork, (couldnt be bothered). So really you are on your own, unless you know how the system works here IE: What you have to do (for yourself,) to get some action out of the police here,(Incidents recorded and so on ) ( DO A DENUNCIA WITH THE GUARDA CIVIL)we are all learning and i learn something new everyday,( and even more so now that im on the CANARYFORUM Its not easy going back to school at my age. But im doing my best.I sincerely hope your friend gets really well.(I was smashed up age 21, and didnt walk for 9 months) Your friend has a VERY good friend in you, and with the help you are giving her, shell be ok. Good luck with it all. And my best wishes hopefully for a full recovery for your friend.

[MARCUS]

my friend is on the road to recovery but it has been a long road.

the police apparently took the driver away and i was told his car was also taken away on the back of a pick up truck.

there were loads of the police at the accident and two of them came with me to our first stop at the small hospital in arguinean (wrong spelling but you will know where I mean), these officers only wanted to know what apartments we were staying in and what room number. that was the first and only time the police spoke to me.

two officers came to the hospital but only spoke with the reception. i was the only witness at the accidend and no police officers wanted to speak to me. i was given the lovely Marcus' telephone number. Marcus spoke to the police for me who advised Marcus that they had all the info they required.

Anyway on a lighter note Suz 's consultant has sent a final Medical Report off to the Lawyers who will now send this over to the people in GC. they are putting in a claim through the sort of motor insurers bureau type of thing that we have in the Uk. we are hoping or rather i am hoping that it will settle out of court.

Now,when you mentioned the ¨lovely¨ Marcus,well i am deeply flattered by your kind words,infact my heart is racing,the ¨Michael Bolton¨cd´s have been brought out from retirement and i think i better go for a swim to cool down.............
:rose: The ¨lovely¨ Marcus x

[mary]

Oh God - you've set him off again. He'll go on about 'the lovely Marcus' for weeks now.






Seriously though, he's certainly a friend when you're in need.

[shirley]

Sorry Mary, ha! ha! just noticed this last week, what a good person for help Marcus is.

[Owen]

Making a denuncia isnt as easy as you are making out Shirley. You must either speak Spanish or take someone with you who can act as a translator.

No any more.

You can call 902 102 112 and mak a report in any language. They then give you a reference number and the address of our nearest station to go and collect the report. Make sure you take your passport with you or photo ID.

[karen]

Marcus was a great help to me that day.

I had been approached in the Clinca Roca by an Insurance Agent for the driver of the car. I was to say the least a bit annoyed as this guy wanted to discuss the accident with me when I hadnt been approached by the Police yet.

Staff at the hospital chased him, told me to go back to the apartment where Marcus would telephone me. Marcus was lovely, I was very upset and wound up by this time. He asked me for all the necessary information and did what he had to do. He assured me it would be ok and gave me his mobile number though making me promise not to give it to any of the reps.

The funny thing was I didnt know who Marcus was. It wasnt till some time later on here that I realised what he did for a living.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MARCUS. YOU ARE LOVELY. :thankyou: