12000 Cautionary tale for disabled drivers

I just received, from a friend here in Itay who offers accommodation, a raft of 'avvisi' forwarded by a hire car company (originally sent to one of her renters, since the renter didn't have a clue as to what these documents were about).
The driver of the hire car had managed to get the number plate of the car photographed three times in one town - on the same day, in fact within the same one hour period - in a zona ZTL. The next day he made the same mistake in a different town. So: total obligation for these contraventions (if paid at the reduced rate) about €350.
The hire car company had paid these fines.
Now, you might say - fair enough, he disobeyed the rules - deserves the fines.

His mistake (wrong assumption) was that because he was displaying a valid Disabled card - with good reason - he would be granted the usual concessions for disabled people. Had the hire car company not paid the fines he could have argued his case (and almost certainly won) - but he didn't get the chance.

Anyway, the moral of this story is to a:) warn all your visitors about zona traffico limitato restrictions - (it isn't always easy to understand these from the signage): and b:) warn any genuine disabled visitors that - unless they make a phone call to the Polizia Municipale ahead of their journey, and alert them to the targa of the hire car which is displaying a Disabled pass, in which case the Police are usually completely understanding and will tell the cameras to ignore that number plate - they will get fined. I'd add a c:) (so long as it didn't make the hire car company run a mile and not give you the car), tell the hire car company that you have a disabled sticker, and that they shouldn't pay any fines wthout reference to the hirer.

You will deduce that this is only a problem with automated camera based systems, which do not photograph the whole car - if a hire car is illegally parked with a valid Disabled sticker the traffic wardens won't give it a ticket. The ZTL cameras are also capable of mistakenly trapping Italian privately registered cars which are showing a Disabled sticker not issued in Italy. If you happen to be driving one of these you should nip into the local police and demonstrate why they shouldn't fine that car.