Appealing NCT fine

duffman13

OK ill try to make this as short as possible. Received a summons about 18 months ago to go to court for failing to produce an nct for a car id previously owned. Court date was 8 months away. Through a stressful part of starting college and family bereavments completely forgot about this court date till the guards arrived at my door 3 weeks ago demanding i pay 500 euro fine.

Anyway got a loan off 500 so i wouldnt go to jail. Managed to get a copy off the summons again and realised the car which i was summoned for was actually wrong reg, it was one digit out and the car which i owned was still in NCT.

Anyway can i appeal this or is the fact i paid the fine now an admission of guilt, could really do with gettin that money back. Also if i can appeal it is there a way off gettin an NCT cert for a car i used to own as i obviously passed the cert on to the new owner. The local garda station have been zero help, and ive never been in court before except for another mistake by the guards which was thrown out before i had to say a word

Gregor Samsa

I assume you weren't stopped and asked to produce the NCT cert in the first place, so how come you didn't query this when you got the original summons?

Anyway, I think the court case was your chance to set the record straight. The fact that you forgot to turn up for that probably means you're out of luck.

The fact that you paid the fine probably has no bearing on it - you gave up the chance to defend yourself of the charge by not turning up to court in the first place. After that, all you can do is pay the fine or face further sanction (as you did).

Of course, IANAL, so you might consult a solicitor to see if there's a loophole, but I can't see how you can ignore a summons and not turn up to court, then pay the fine, and then turn around and say "Oh, I just discovered there's a mistake - can I have my money back please."

An expensive lesson in reading your mail carefully!

Anan1

I'd ask a solicitor?

duffman13

i was stopped and did produce because it was two days before selling the car so i made sure i produced that night, i had all good intentions off turning up to court however a number off situations arose which made me lose track off the date.

I do not expect to walk in and them to hand me back the 500 euro but if i now have a conviction against my name for an error by the guard id like to appeal it. I had the car for 3 months my reg was XX d 11456 the summons said XX d 1456 so since id sold the car 6 months earlier it wasnt something that stuck in my mind. Thanks for the advice however i already have enough bills to pay without asking a solicitor, might hit citizens advice and see if they have any ideas.

dudara

You might be able to apply for a setaside or appeal - seeing as how the conviction was handed down in your absence. Get some legal advice from somewhere though - or better still - call into the local courthouse and ask for their advice - the clerks there can be knowledgeable.

duffman13

Thanks dudara i think i will go up to the court house and chat to the clerk, just flickin around it looks like i may have the right to appeal, only one way to find out ill keep you all posted on the outcome.

thanks