The Justice of the Peace of Savona Marco Tiby accepted the appeal of a person, represented by the Pozzolo law firm of Vercelli, for a fine received on the A10 Genoa-Ventimiglia motorway (in the territory of the Municipality of Albisola Superiore) because the tutor was not approved .
The fine dates back to the end of 2022 when, while traveling along that stretch of motorway, the car exceeded the limits imposed by road signs by more than 10 km/h and by no more than 40 km/h. Following the sanction, the appellant, through the Pozzolo firm, challenged the sanction by highlighting a flaw in the notification procedure, the defect in the detector’s pre-reporting; the illegitimacy of the 5% tolerance instead of 10%; and the lack of approval of the instrument, which had only been approved.
The appeal was approved on the basis of the fourth reason put forward by the appellant, namely the lack of approval, based on a sentence of the Court of Cassation (10505/24). The Court of Cassation has established that the penalty for speeding ascertained with an approved but not approved detector (in the SICve case) is null and void.
The other party claimed that the tutor had been approved and everything focused on the difference between the concept of ministerial approval and that of approval.
“While the ministerial approval authorizes the serial reproduction of a device tested in the laboratory – we read in the sentence of the Justice of the Peace -, with attribution of competence to the Ministry for Economic Development, the approval consists of a procedure which does not require the comparison of the prototype with characteristics considered fundamental or with particular requirements foreseen by the regulation”.
“The approval, therefore – concluded the Justice of the Peace – consists of a procedure which – although administrative, like approval – also necessarily has a technical nature and is aimed at guaranteeing the perfect functionality and precision of the electronic instrument to be use to ascertain violations; – in this case the detector instrument, as per the attached report, is only approved, but not also approved”.
