Cant Pay Fine??

Caveman1

Hey guys I got €1000 fine and a ban for driving with no insurance. The thing is im unemployed at the moment and cant afford to pay the fine. I no I was wrong for driving the car in the 1st place and have no problem with the punishment. I am just wondering is there anyway you can arrange to pay money by the week or get a time extension to pay the fine??

Jo King

Caveman1 wrote: »

Hey guys I got €1000 fine and a ban for driving with no insurance. The thing is im unemployed at the moment and cant afford to pay the fine. I no I was wrong for driving the car in the 1st place and have no problem with the punishment. I am just wondering is there anyway you can arrange to pay money by the week or get a time extension to pay the fine??

The best thing to do is go to prison for non payment. The fine will be written off and you will be free very quickly.

Iron Hide

If you know you were wrong then why the hell did you do it? personally i think a month or two in the slammer would be better.

MagicMarker

Caveman1 wrote: »

Hey guys I got €1000 fine and a ban for driving with no insurance. The thing is im unemployed at the moment and cant afford to pay the fine. I no I was wrong for driving the car in the 1st place and have no problem with the punishment. I am just wondering is there anyway you can arrange to pay money by the week or get a time extension to pay the fine??

Sell your car.

gustafo

Jo King wrote: »

The best thing to do is go to prison for non payment. The fine will be written off and you will be free very quickly.

This is true i know a guy who didn't pay a fine of 1500 euro and after a few months the cops rang him and asked him was he going paying the fine he said no so the cop said he will have to call for him to take him to prison, so he takes him to cork prison in the morning he is held in the holding cell for a few hours then he is given his dinner and by 5pm he is given the price of a train ticket back home fine cleared, some system eh !!

Jarren

Jo King wrote: »

The best thing to do is go to prison for non payment. The fine will be written off and you will be free very quickly.

what about a criminal record for uninsured driving?

Our man in Havana

That remains either way. Paying the fine makes no difference.

Our man in Havana

gustafo wrote: »

This is true i know a guy who didn't pay a fine of 1500 euro and after a few months the cops rang him and asked him was he going paying the fine he said no so the cop said he will have to call for him to take him to prison, so he takes him to cork prison in the morning he is held in the holding cell for a few hours then he is given his dinner and by 5pm he is given the price of a train ticket back home fine cleared, some system eh !!

That's the way the system is. The OP would probably best off to avail of it.

jaybeeveedub

to answer the OP's question (and maybe he does want to pay and not go to jail!!)

S15 Fines Act 2010, allows for the payment of fines in instalments.

OP will have to show undue financial hardship if the once off payment of the fine is enforced

source

OP ignore the above "advice" go to the district court clerk, state your case and you'll be able to sort something out.

Jo King

foinse wrote: »

OP ignore the above "advice" go to the district court clerk, state your case and you'll be able to sort something out.

The District Court Clerk has nothing to do with it. The judge will have to vary his order.

source

Jo King wrote: »

The District Court Clerk has nothing to do with it. The judge will have to vary his order.

That is true, but he can't show up in court and say his piece, If he goes to the DCC, then the DCC can process his application. The first step is to go to the DCC and make an application. Alternatively the op can pay a solicitor to do the same thing.

Jo King

foinse wrote: »

That is true, but he can't show up in court and say his piece, If he goes to the DCC, then the DCC can process his application. The first step is to go to the DCC and make an application. Alternatively the op can pay a solicitor to do the same thing.

If he hasn't any money to pay the fine, where is he going to get the money to pay a solicitor?

Our man in Havana

A few hours inside would be his best option at this stage.

source

Our man in Havana wrote: »

A few hours inside would be his best option at this stage.

OP I'll let you make up your own mind, If you do decide to go into prison, just hope it's not late on a friday evening, or you'll be in for the full weekend.

testicle

foinse wrote: »

OP I'll let you make up your own mind, If you do decide to go into prison, just hope it's not late on a friday evening, or you'll be in for the full weekend.

Still a lot more fun that being down a grand.

jaybeeveedub

sorry OP, S.15 for payment by installments is not in force yet...

looks like its casa del MJELR for the weekend!!

jakdelad

testicle wrote: »

Still a lot more fun that being down a grand.

what a great legal system we have
dont pay your tv licence fine you go to jail
sink the country
and bankers go grinning to the golf course

Caveman1

Just an update, I received a letter in the door the other day to say my local Garda station has a warrant for my arrest and that I should contact them, I rang them and they asked me to come to the station the next day so that they could bring me to Mountjoy prison, I went up to the station at 10 o clock and 2 guards drove me in to Moujntjoy, I was put into a holding cell for with 2 other people who hadn't payed fines, They released the 3 of us after 3 hours. What a crappy legal system we have.

Surely it would of been better to give me community service where I could work off the debt rather that sitting in a room for 3 hours and having the fine wiped? The 2 guards were telling me that it doesn't even go on your record as the prison time is only in lieu of the fine

With a system like this why would anyone bother paying the fines they get?

Edit: I was meant to do 6 days in prison for failure to pay the fine, one of the other guys was meant to do 30 days but we only done 3 hours.

MagicMarker

That's pretty standard, they simply don't have the space to keep you in jail.

Pretty handy if you don't have the money though!

Zambia

I always knew this is what happened , but that is a joke.

Procrastastudy

The prison system in Ireland is fubar. I've had the pleasure of listening to various people talk about it including Judge Riley the inspector of prisons. The problem is that many of the options (which would cost less in the short term) would cost money up front and one is going to suggest spending money on them instead of doing the whole Daily Mail "LOCK THEM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY... SAYS DIANA FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE".

We're a couple of years away from having to pay millions to prisoners in compensation for breaching their human rights in slopping out - as happened in Scotland and the way we deal with juvenile offenders is sickening. Write to your TD folks :P

monkeypants

If that's the case now, what do they expect to do with the people who don't pay the household charge/septic tank inspection fee?

Our man in Havana

Indeed, it will end up like the poll tax, totally unenforceable.

ResearchWill

monkeypants wrote: »

If that's the case now, what do they expect to do with the people who don't pay the household charge/septic tank inspection fee?

The Gov has already stated that the fines act will be fully in force by then, so they will fine and then take from wages etc.

ResearchWill

Caveman1 wrote: »

Hey guys I got €1000 fine and a ban for driving with no insurance. The thing is im unemployed at the moment and cant afford to pay the fine. I no I was wrong for driving the car in the 1st place and have no problem with the punishment. I am just wondering is there anyway you can arrange to pay money by the week or get a time extension to pay the fine??

If you are witin 14 days of court hearing, just appeal, recogs should be low, that has two advantages 1 gives you time to save for fine 2 you can continue driving while awaiting appeal, also if circuit court satisfied there is a good reason they do not have to ban you, a good reason could be need car to find employment. Also in my opinion €1000 euro fine is too much for someone unemployed so CC should reduce it to 300 to 500 range.

mikemac1

ResearchWill wrote: »

Also in my opinion €1000 euro fine is too much for someone unemployed so CC should reduce it to 300 to 500 range.

Are you in favour of different fines depending on your income?

So the OP who is unemployed gets a small fine but if a guy with a top job is caught with no insurance they get fined a few thousand

I've heard of this in some other country, fines are a percentage of your income.
Could have been Norway, I'm not sure

ResearchWill

mikemac1 wrote: »

Are you in favour of different fines depending on your income?

So the OP who is unemployed gets a small fine but if a guy with a top job is caught with no insurance they get fined a few thousand

I've heard of this in some other country, fines are a percentage of your income.
Could have been Norway, I'm not sure

Well simple answer yes, and section 14 of the fines act says

14.— (1) The purpose of this section is to ensure as far as practicable that, where a court imposes a fine on a person, the effect of the fine on that person or his or her dependants is not significantly abated or made more severe by reason of his or her financial circumstances.

That section came into effect January 2011.

Our man in Havana

ResearchWill wrote: »

The Gov has already stated that the fines act will be fully in force by then, so they will fine and then take from wages etc.

Even so, all the expected non payers will gum up the courts system. With the expected amount of disobedient people it would probably bring the district courts to a standstill.

In the UK with the poll tax, the councils could not enforce the amount of liability orders. Even the police refused to execute arrest warrants for non payment. The system just collapsed under the strain.

I can see the same happening in Ireland.

ResearchWill

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Even so, all the expected non payers will gum up the courts system. With the expected amount of disobedient people it would probably bring the district courts to a standstill.

In the UK with the poll tax, the councils could not enforce the amount of liability orders. Even the police refused to execute arrest warrants for non payment. The system just collapsed under the strain.

I can see the same happening in Ireland.

Maybe yes maybe no, polls say 25% will not pay charge. About 250000 people ya it may very well clog courts. Also if people see their neighbours ending up in court and ending up with €1000 in fines ect. and having it deducted from salary they might change their mind and pay up.

I can't predict the future, if the 25% stick to their guns I agree it will clog the system. But it all depends how many stick to it.

I agree with OP, they should have community service or something instead

ResearchWill

bluewolf wrote: »

I agree with OP, they should have community service or something instead

Community service costs as well. Before such an order is imposed the Judge has to get a report from probation service saying person is suitable for community service and such community service is avilable. That means adjourning the case for in most cases months, having a person meet the offender spend time with them do report and then supervise that person if order is granted. Then come back to court waste more court time and impose CSO.

If a person is going to court they should have an income and expenditure statement, I advise one the same as a family law affidavit of means. That should be given to the judge and a fine imposed that the person can pay. Once the rest of the fines act is enacted then the option to pay on instalments will come in which should reduce the numbers jailed in default.

Our man in Havana

Can social welfare payments be attached under the fines act?

Caveman1

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Can social welfare payments be attached under the fines act?

The guards told me that in future when you get fines etc they take your pps number so lets say I'm on social welfare and can only afford to pay €10 a week, that as soon as I get a job they'll know and they will up the weekly amount that's being repaid. Whether there is any truth in this I don't know, it does make sense though.