minx of a garda took my car

tom-thebox

I came across a rude Garda tonight, bless his cotton socks

He pounded by car which was purchased on the 4th of August, for non display of insurance and tax disc

So heres my story

The car is taxed until October, the disc is lost, I had a rf 200 stamped by the garda on the 7th of August and also by the tax office yesterday saying I was there and they couldnt give me a replacement disc until I got the log book in my name (note the tax office put the date august the 19th on the rf and the garda screamed fraud, when actually it must of been a mistake on the stamp)

The car is also insured however I didnt have the disc yet. I did however have my old policy.

The gaurd was so rude, at 2 am, he didnt check pulse about the tax and just took the car.

I called the station to complain and got all the ombudsmans details.


Was the gaurd right to take the vechile?


Do I have to wait until the log book comes through to go back to the tax office to get the replacement tax disc on a car thats already taxed?

x in the city

prob havin a bad day in the office, some guards are downright pricks like that

basically if you got certs and what not to prove its insured and so on I dont see much of a problem but you could get a fine or something for not displaying your said discs.?

Gary ITR

AFAIK The offences are for non display. Which means taxed or insured it still has to be displayed in the window. Technically you shouldn't be driving the car until you have all documentation in order, I'm not having a go at you here it's our system that is horribly flawed

Caboose

Once you can display reference numbers in this circumstance I think your ok. I've been stopped on the way home from buying a car and was pleasantly told "happy motoring". Maybe it was a bad day at the office as it's too early in the month to be chasing quotas.

Balls tho.

milltown

Similar happened to me a few years back. For various reasons, all legitimate, I had neither valid tax disc nor insurance cert displayed. The car was insured but I hadn't the log book to tax it with yet. I'd had the car a few weeks and the change of ownership thingy in the window said as much.

The Garda said he couldn't be satisfied the car had either tax or insurance so was impounding it. I seethed and fumed for a while but to be fair, the excuses I was giving him, true and all as they were, must have sounded like fairy tales to someone who has heard it all before. Turned out the insurance disc was at home, Mrs.Milltown had forgotten to tell me it arrived, so we were able to get the car released the following day and weren't charged a penny.

It does sound like you got pretty rough treatment though. Put yourself in the Garda's shoes and if you still can't see his perspective, go the ombudsman route.

jayteecork

When you said "minx" of a garda I was expecting some hot female garda busted you.

quarryman

jayteecork wrote: »

When you said "minx" of a garda I was expecting some hot female garda busted you.

Indeed, thread needs more pics.

EPM

jayteecork wrote: »

When you said "minx" of a garda I was expecting some hot female garda busted you.

Was just going to say it was useless without pics but then I read it:(

stealthyspeeder

The system in the Republic is shocking! In this day and age, an incident like that should never occur! Up north, bringing the documents with you is reallly just a formality, 1 call to the insurance company and the Police can tell if you have insurance, 1 call and they can check if you have a valid drivers license! Tax needs to be displayed but Im sure the there is some sort of producer system in the south as in the north! Im shocked that due to lack of technology on the Guards side combined with unfortunate circumstances on the OP's side, the OP has had his car taken away.

waraf

jayteecork wrote: »

When you said "minx" of a garda I was expecting some hot female garda busted you.

Me too. Very disappointed

JohnW2008

The offence is non display, so I wouldn't go running to the Ombudsman quite yet.

Hopefully, the Gardai in the Pound will waive the fees when you explain the situation to them!

--Kaiser--

I've read on a different site that under an EU 'proportionality' law, they can't take your car off you for not having tax, since your car is more than likely worth a lot more than the tax owed to the government. Perhaps someone can put it better, croninj from this site knows his stuff

smash

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

I've read on a different site that under an EU 'proportionality' law, they can't take your car off you for not having tax, since your car is more than likely worth a lot more than the tax owed to the government. Perhaps someone can put it better, croninj from this site knows his stuff

If that was the case then the same law would apply to not VRTing a car and driving it on a UK reg car.... can't be true!

leeroybrown

I wouldn't go making complaints until the option of politely asking for the car back with no charge is exhausted. There's no point in setting yourself up for a fight when you can have the situation resolved more easily.

Yakuza

In this day and age, can't the guards not just check if a car is taxed or not? I thought that they could quickly look that up, esp now that they have cars with ANPR technology, rather than having to look at a disc. The offence of non-display should be removed if tax / insurance / NCT details can be verified in an instant, it is an anachronism that belongs in the Dark Ages.

Sizzler

When he took the car did you say to him "you little minx" :D

All joking aside, he was a right pox to take the car off you. Exercising discretion obviously not in his vocab. After stopping you he probably didnt want to be seen to be having any form of weakness in his most important civic position and decided he would ruin your evening, bravo :rolleyes:

BlackWizard

Yeah I thought a minx was usually a hot girl..

Bogger77

So in summary,
at 2am in the 14th of August the following occured.
1) OP got stopped, doesnt say check point or pulled over.
2) OP has no proof of ownership of car, no tax or insurance displayed on car.
3) OP handed over documentation porpurting to be a reciept from Tax office with a date in the future, for tax disc.
4) OP did not have any proof of insurance for the car he was driving.

I'm at a loss to see how the OP can complain about the garda following procedures.
1) No proof of ownership, slip in window is meaningless.
2) "Lost tax disc" must be heard at least once a day by traffic corps. OP had dodgy reciept saying he'd looked for replacement. OP should of checked reciept and ensured it was ok before walking away from Tax Office.
3) Here's the kicker. Insurance. I've never known it take 10days for a new insurance cert to come from the brokers or insurance company, after switching policy. That aside, I usually pop into office and collect disc.

From the OP's attitude here, I can only imagine his attitude at the road side, so for no valid insurance doc's and invalid proof of insurance, it's not surprising he walked home last night.
For checking pulse, the op would not be on the system as owner. DVLA in UK has same issues. Insurance check arent done in the middle of the night, the poster has been watching too much road wars on sky1/3.

Fey!

Bogger77 wrote: »

3) Here's the kicker. Insurance. I've never known it take 10days for a new insurance cert to come from the brokers or insurance company, after switching policy.

I've had experience of having 6 weeks pass waiting for the correct insurance cert through a broker. Had never happened me before, but screw ups can happen.

As for the wrong date on the form from the tax office, again these things happen.

It looks like the OP has just had a string of bad luck.

All that said, with so much wrong, I can understand why the Garda took the car.

Interesting point about a check point or a stop. Which was it, OP? And if it was a stop, what for?

sunnyside

If you buy a car at a garage they give you a docket to display on the windscreen stating that the car has just been purchased. This covers you while waiting for tax/insurance discs to arrive.

Bogger77

Fey!,
It's a string of bad luck, but OP must be leaving information out of his version. Was driving a loaner car from garage some years back, as mine was in getting repaired thanks to a lovely safe female driver, and had no tax or insurance displayed on the car. Got stopped at checkpoint in Limerick, told the garda my story, showed my insurance disc from other car, and was sent on my way with a cheery wave. OP's story doesn't really add up.

Jaysoose

Am i the only that is laughing at the 'dog ate my tax disk and insurance' story the OP is giving, seriously the guards cant win sometimes.

Gran Hermano

Definitions of minx on the Web:

• coquette: a seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

• A pert, flirtatious or impudent young woman
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/minx

Itsdacraic

I only clicked on this from the front page because of the title and not a sexy cop pic in sight.

I hope they keep your car and crush it into a cube. :mad:

milltown

Bogger77 wrote: »

From the OP's attitude here, I can only imagine his attitude at the road side.

That's harsh!

Apart from leading us all on by alluding to sexy Gardai I see nothing in the OP's OP to suggest any attitude problems. No doubt he was as browned off as I was that his car was taken off him but he is within his rights to complain at the station and to the ombudsman if he feels he was treated poorly.

He came on here and gave his version of events and simply asked if we thought the Garda was right to take the car. The consensus is that, yes, the he-minx was right to take the car based on the scenario before him. I know all to well that it's little consolation when you're left standing on the side of the road, knowing that the fantastic story you told the Garda was all true.

Give the guy a break. He asked us for an opinion based on the facts he gave. He didn't ask people to make up additional facts and spout off based on them.

PureBred

steve06 wrote: »

If that was the case then the same law would apply to not VRTing a car and driving it on a UK reg car.... can't be true!

Sure the whole VRT thing is illegal according to the EU. AFAIK the Irish Gov gets fined every year over it, but they make enough to pay the fine and have change.

Also anyone know if Sun Visors are now illegal. Heard that a law was passed a few weeks back that make them all illegal.

Unregistered.

tom-thebox wrote: »

...(note the tax office put the date august the 19th on the rf and the garda screamed fraud, when actually it must of been a mistake....

I'm 99% certain that the 19 was in fact a malformed 14!

Guy:Incognito

ricfeen wrote: »

Sure the whole VRT thing is illegal according to the EU. AFAIK the Irish Gov gets fined every year over it, but they make enough to pay the fine and have change.
l.

Nice mix of untrue statement and qualifying it with something you think.

slimjimmc

sunnyside wrote: »

If you buy a car at a garage they give you a docket to display on the windscreen stating that the car has just been purchased. This covers you while waiting for tax/insurance discs to arrive.

AFIAK those dockets have absolutely no legal status and so do not allow you to drive without displaying all the relevant discs. However most reasonable Gardaí would cut you some slack if the sale was fairly recent but that's at their discretion.

Unregistered. wrote: »

I'm 99% certain that the 19 was in fact a malformed 14!

Or a malformed 13, considering that was the day the tax office stamped the form, or the clerk just misread the stamp and set it to 19 instead of 13.

dungeon

Annoying and all as your experience was, there are several others out there who are driving without tax and insurance so for the odd case like yours, there are far more caught who need to be caught.

dungeon

'Twud be great if we could rid our roads of the scum who drive without tax and insurance.