Resident expats in Portugal and anyone with a holiday home there will be no stranger to the frequent roundabout car checks and random police stops that occur in the country.

While officials deny that there is no policy in place to actively hunt out fines, English newspaper, The Portugal News, has reported that the value of fines issued in January 2012 was up around a staggering 80 per cent on the same period in 2011.

During 2011, the Portuguese government raised €85.3 million in fines for traffic offences, a figure that The Portugal News reports in itself as an 80 per cent increase on the previous year.

Regardless of the true reason behind this increase, anyone driving in Portugal would be well advised to consider it. There are strict guidelines in place related to how long residents can continue to drive UK plated cars within the country before getting them matriculated.

“Anyone who has been ignoring these regulations would do well to seek advice and ensure they are following the letter of the law – or it would seem that it is only a matter of time until they are heavily fined” said resident expat Ben Taylor, author of PortugalBuyingGuide.co.uk.

For details of property for sale in Portugal, visit the Portuguese listings on Rightmove Overseas. One way to save money when buying in Portugal is to use a currency specialist when transferring your pounds into euros to complete the purchase of your property. For more information on this, contact Smart Currency Exchange.

To understand the full step-by-step process to buying a property in Portugal, collect The Overseas Guides Company’s ‘Portugal Property Buying Guide’