Fixed Charge Offence

deepriver

Interested to know of anyone else had a similar experience...

recieved a fixed charge notice in the post for not having a insurance disc on display in my car

thing is no Garda ever asked me to produce my insurance certificate at a station or warn me that I was going to get a fine

is there some kind of protocol or can a Garda issue a fine on a parked or unoccupied car?

Where it gets a bit more complicated is I was actually stopped by a Garda where the 'offense' took place at a similar period in time to the fixed charge offense & he asked me where my insurance was and seemed content to let me go

So I am confused as to weather this Garda reconsidered and just gave me a fine while the car was parked or did another Garda come accross the car while it was parked and issue the fine

voxpop

I got one of these for parking on the footpath ( i had 2 wheels on the footpath along with everyone else near the spar at fosters ave- to avoid blocking the road. Its a big footpath and the car wasnt blocking anyone.) Anyway I wasnt in the car. Didnt know anything until the fine arrived in the post. I just paid it and got on with my life

Gregor Samsa

deepriver wrote: »

recieved a fixed charge notice in the post for not having a insurance disc on display in my car

thing is no Garda ever asked me to produce my insurance certificate at a station or warn me that I was going to get a fine

is there some kind of protocol or can a Garda issue a fine on a parked or unoccupied car?

In fairness, the Garda is hardly going to hang around until you come back to your car to give you the fine.

The offence you said was for not displaying your insurance disk - which is a different offence to driving without insurance. It doesn't matter if you have thr disk in your pocket, the law says it must be displayed on the windscreen. So bringing your cert to the station wouldn't have mattered anyway.

deepriver

agreed but it there a protocol or not? do they have to issue you with notice of a fine or could they do a road sweep and just issue fixed charged offense notices to every driverless & parked car they find with no tax/insurance/nct etc?

Anan1

deepriver wrote: »

agreed but it there a protocol or not? do they have to issue you with notice of a fine or could they do a road sweep and just issue fixed charged offense notices to every driverless & parked car they find with no tax/insurance/nct etc?

Fines for out-of-date tax can be issued in exactly the same way as parking tickets, I don't know whether it's the same for insurance & NCT discs but i'd imagine it might well be.

robtri

deepriver wrote: »

agreed but it there a protocol or not? do they have to issue you with notice of a fine or could they do a road sweep and just issue fixed charged offense notices to every driverless & parked car they find with no tax/insurance/nct etc?

well by law you are required to display your tax and insurance disc, if you don't the consequence is that you get a fine.... thats exactly what happened, unfortunately you didn't comply with the law, therefore when noticed you got a fine...
so yes they can do road sweep to ensure that all vehicles ( whether a driver is in it or not, makes no difference) are complying with the law, any non-conforming vehicles, in a public area, can be fined....

cormie

I got done for this before aswell. Left car at the side of the road and had to take the insurance disc with me for a reason I forget and got a fine for it.

Just out of curiosity, is it the same in the UK that you must display it at all times? I read a forum where somebody was saying they keep their disc stuck to the passenger sun visor and when they are at a checkpoint, just push it down, nobody mentioned anything of the risk of not having it always displayed?

Also, does anyone know what the story is with having a parking permit (say for a street side house with no driveway) but not having insurance disc displayed? Is it still the same or is there an exception to this as you have a resident permit to park there and you'd have nowhere else to store your car while you sort out insurance etc.

deepriver

I guess I will just pay the fine, I was thinking of appealling it to the super, but the consenus seems to say that would be a waste of time...

is it just me or are the cops really cracking down on driving offenses... ?thats 4 penalty points in as many weeks for me and I am not exactly a tearaway driver, I meander around in a beat up 95 clio fully taxed & insured and keep getting stopped and done for no seatbelt/disc and other minor offenses

Zube

deepriver wrote: »

thats 4 penalty points in as many weeks for me

You don't get penalty points for failing to display your disc, it's just a fine.

deepriver

Zube wrote: »

You don't get penalty points for failing to display your disc, it's just a fine.

that would be great... are you sure? Garda down the station said it would be two points... is it a fixed pentalty awarded on payment of the fine (or admitting guilt in other words) or at the garda's discretion I wonder?

robtri

deepriver wrote: »

that would be great... are you sure? Garda down the station said it would be two points... is it a fixed pentalty awarded on payment of the fine (or admitting guilt in other words) or at the garda's discretion I wonder?

Defo no penalty points attached to this, fixed penalty.. of €60, if fine not paid within 28 days increased to €90

details on

http://www.rulesoftheroad.ie/accidents-gardai-and-penalties/penalty-points-fixed-charge-offences/index.html

CharlieCroker

cormie wrote: »

I got done for this before aswell. Left car at the side of the road and had to take the insurance disc with me for a reason I forget and got a fine for it.

Just out of curiosity, is it the same in the UK that you must display it at all times? I read a forum where somebody was saying they keep their disc stuck to the passenger sun visor and when they are at a checkpoint, just push it down, nobody mentioned anything of the risk of not having it always displayed?

Also, does anyone know what the story is with having a parking permit (say for a street side house with no driveway) but not having insurance disc displayed? Is it still the same or is there an exception to this as you have a resident permit to park there and you'd have nowhere else to store your car while you sort out insurance etc.

UK is different, They're not required to show insurance or NCT (mot) discs on the windscreen, just a tax disc.

deepriver

robtri wrote: »

Defo no penalty points attached to this, fixed penalty.. of €60, if fine not paid within 28 days increased to €90

details on

http://www.rulesoftheroad.ie/accidents-gardai-and-penalties/penalty-points-fixed-charge-offences/index.html

thanks for the link, explains it all... although there doesnt seem to a lot of equity in the awarding of penalty points

driving without a seatbelt & causing a risk to your personal safety - 2 points

driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway, dangerous overtaking etc & causing a risk to both yourself and other road users - 2 points

Anan1

deepriver wrote: »

is it just me or are the cops really cracking down on driving offenses... ?thats 4 penalty points in as many weeks for me and I am not exactly a tearaway driver, I meander around in a beat up 95 clio fully taxed & insured and keep getting stopped and done for no seatbelt/disc and other minor offenses

Gregor Samsa

deepriver wrote: »

thanks for the link, explains it all... although there doesnt seem to a lot of equity in the awarding of penalty points

driving without a seatbelt & causing a risk to your personal safety - 2 points

driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway, dangerous overtaking etc & causing a risk to both yourself and other road users - 2 points

Yeah, but penalty points are only part of it.

If you're caught for not wearing a seat belt, you'll get the fine and the 2points and that's it.

If you're caught driving the wrong side of a dual carriageway, you'll probably be done for dangerous driving, and be up in court. The "Driving a vehicle on a motorway against the flow of traffic" would probably only be used for someone caught reversing to a missed exit on an empty motorway, or something moronic (but not immediately dangerous, if there's no other traffic around) like that.

eyesofvenus

what reason did you have for not displaying your insurance disc??

PCPhoto

phutyle wrote: »

Yeah, but penalty points are only part of it.

If you're caught for not wearing a seat belt, you'll get the fine and the 2points and that's it.

If you're caught driving the wrong side of a dual carriageway, you'll probably be done for dangerous driving, and be up in court. The "Driving a vehicle on a motorway against the flow of traffic" would probably only be used for someone caught reversing to a missed exit on an empty motorway, or something moronic (but not immediately dangerous, if there's no other traffic around) like that.

wasnt there an old lady recently who drove the wrong way up the motorway ...or the N4 at least ..... when gardai eventually pulled her over she thought all the other cars were going the wrong way - they didnt do anything to her - let off scott free !!!

slimjimmc

deepriver wrote: »

I guess I will just pay the fine, I was thinking of appealling it to the super, but the consenus seems to say that would be a waste of time...

is it just me or are the cops really cracking down on driving offenses... ?thats 4 penalty points in as many weeks for me and I am not exactly a tearaway driver, I meander around in a beat up 95 clio fully taxed & insured and keep getting stopped and done for no seatbelt/disc and other minor offenses

They well may be cracking down but I haven't seen much evidence of it. Maybe the Gardai perceive that 'beat up' older cars are a likely candidate for tax/insurance/NCT dodging offences, only a guess.

You don't have to be a tearaway to get fines or points. No insurance disc displayed (fine) & not wearing seatbelt (fine+points) would suffice as you've already discovered.

With regards to your query about protocol, what's to be gained in letting someone know in advance that a penalty notice is coming? You could easily get both in the same mailshot. It won't change anything and it's a waste of resources.

cormie wrote: »

Also, does anyone know what the story is with having a parking permit (say for a street side house with no driveway) but not having insurance disc displayed? Is it still the same or is there an exception to this as you have a resident permit to park there and you'd have nowhere else to store your car while you sort out insurance etc.

If the car is in a public place then needs to be street legal tax: insurance, nct, good tyres, number plate etc. A parking permit would not change this.

PS: A public place is anywhere the public may enter e.g. public road, car park, even a private housing estate may be considered a public place. It doesn't matter if the place is privately or publically owned, basically if the public have access then it's a public place.