Court appearance for Speeding

waldo

I got clocked speeding on the Palmerstown Road (75km/h in a 60 zone) over a year ago. I only changed my car a few weeks back, so as soon as I transferred my ownership in the old car a garda arrived at my dublin address with a summons. ( I put the dublin address on the change of ownership form)

I was registered as living in Cork on the old car, and the Gardai couldn't issue me with the fines (was in a rented house in Cork). Is is allowable to go straight to a court appearance because they couldn't find me? I never got a chance to pay the fine, so now i have to waste a day going to court. What a waste of my time and the court's time.

I can prove that I was living in Dublin for the past 2 years, so will probably only get two points. Anybody been to this court? Would I have to wear a suit? What's the process like? Its a district court in Dublin 5. Comments appreciated.

Stark

How were you taxing the old car if you weren't living/collecting mail at the registered address?

waldo

I was taxing car at new address. Obviously the gardai didn't think of searching with the motor tax office for any change of address.
I was occasionally checking mail from old address, but nothing about a speeding ticket.

Stark

You might have a case then. I know a guy who was in a similar situation before with the speeding fines never arriving and then getting a summons months down the road. He explained the situation to the judge and ended up getting no penalty points at all.

waldo

Thanks for the information Stark. I'll see what happens in court tomorrow.

jameshayes

wear a suit man, or at least a shirt and tie - or if you dont have a shirt and tie handy just dont wear runners.

It shouldn't make a difference what you wear but it does.

deman

Keep us posted and good luck tomorrow.

OldmanMondeo

waldo wrote: »

I was taxing car at new address. Obviously the gardai didn't think of searching with the motor tax office for any change of address.
I was occasionally checking mail from old address, but nothing about a speeding ticket.

I presume you taxed your car viz Cork Co. Co. and not Dublin. It is up to the owner to ensure the correct registered details are on the ownership documents. On the manual form you are asked is the vechile is normally kept at the registered address. This might go against you.

waldo

I taxed on Motrotax.ie. i used my current dublin address. I thought that that was sufficient if somebody wanted to track me down.

OldmanMondeo

If the tax disc was posted to your old address, you should be ok i.e. get the fine and 2 points, but if the disc was comming to the new address, this is were you might have problems.