Today a Guardia Civil told me they where going to take away 4 points of my UK drivers license (I was talking on the phone while driving ) .... Does anyone know or have any clue if they can do that if I have a valid UK driving License ?????

You cannot have points taken away on a UK licence. The UK authorities add points for offences…points are bad, in Spain you get them taken away…points are good (you start out with 12 or 14).

With a UK licence in Spain you’ll just get the fine (or even temporary imprisonment for serious offences) but not the points.

If you are resident is Spain you do, of course, have to have the required medicals at stipulated intervals after age 45 even if you have a UK licence rather than a Spanish one. No medical certificate = no valid licence = much more serious situation.

It depends on resident status.

Tourist its a fine, although I now here that it is possible for EU countries to enforce acc borders, if not now, it will be coming in 2012 with the new updated license scheme.

Which means a traffic offense in Spain removing 4 points would then be transferred to the UK and 4 points added.

If your a resident then you need to register your license, have the first initial medical and then every in 10 yrs you need a Spanish license.

Without the initial medical, registration of your UK license, which is invalid in Spain as your no longer a UK resident, it`ll be taken from you, you`ll then need a Spanish one, which will then have the required points removed.

For using your mobile you`ll get 3 points removed.

This is a good reference of the rules, note though it does say after 6 months residency your license becomes invalid, this seems to be a general misnomer in Spain. Which is why its wise to exchange straight away.

http://fetcm.ugt.org/pdf_Nuevos/actualidad/en_profundidad/conductores_extranjeros.pdf

The link is too a pdf document from the UGT union, which is a major organisation in Spain.

thank you all very much for your advices and knowledge