A cyclist using his mobile while riding in Portimão was stopped and fined €60 by police. In a separate incident, another man pedalling to his home in Albufeira was fined €600 for being over the alcohol limit (1,7g/l).
The mobile phone user, 26-year-old Nélson Reis, said he had just bought a bottle of water from a garage and was riding slowly along the hard shoulder when he was stopped.
He said that he had no idea that he was committing an offence and claimed that the authorities should make it clear to cyclists that this type of action is an infringement of the law.
The second man, 30-year-old João Manuel, who has a physical deficiency which obliges him to use a cycle for transport, said he was only a few metres from his house when he was apprehended and he described the action as “absurd”.
A GNR spokesman said that they were within the law to carry out such measures if road safety was at risk.
