Traffic Corps Garda found guilty of traffic offences

davet82

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0913/traffic-corps-garda-guilty-of-traffic-offences.html

i feel almost guilty that i took so much pleasure reading this story, i know i'm a petty, petty man

mathie

rte wrote:

He escaped a court penalty while a judge confirms if he has made a contribution of €3,500 to the St Vincent De Paul.

Are they typing this with their feet?

donvito99

Who cares.

dahat

Still no conviction though.........may as well have given him 200 lines..

Owen_S

dahat wrote: »

Still no conviction though.........may as well have given him 200 lines..

I'm sure they wouldn't miss it from the evidence room.

McG

"But said he [the judge] was troubled about the implications that a court conviction would have for the garda's career as this was different to an ordinary citizen coming before the courts on road traffic matters."

So what?! The law should be applied equally to all. :mad:

zenno

He escaped a court penalty while a judge confirms if he has made a contribution of €3,500 to the St Vincent De Paul.

Sounds a bit cryptic. A nice big fine there, I can't see him doing that again. It hurts like mad getting a large fine, so justice served even though this above line is cryptic, or unless RTE just made a boo boo of their text ?.

dahat

Total waste of time and court expenses n that case,seems a bit personal to me.
Sh1te like this would sicken you....

gobnaitolunacy

McG wrote: »

"But said he [the judge] was troubled about the implications that a court conviction would have for the garda's career as this was different to an ordinary citizen coming before the courts on road traffic matters."

So what?! The law should be applied equally to all. :mad:

It's not as if he'd lose his job....

dahat

zenno wrote: »

He escaped a court penalty while a judge confirms if he has made a contribution of €3,500 to the St Vincent De Paul.

Sounds a bit cryptic. A nice big fine there, I can't see him doing that again. It hurts like mad getting a large fine, so justice served even though this above line is cryptic, or unless RTE just made a boo boo of their text ?.

A slap on the wrist effectively,fine paid then there is no criminal conviction and he continues to do his job and send others to court for convictions for the very same offence.........
What a total waste of bloody time bringing him to court.

davet82

dahat wrote: »

A slap on the wrist effectively,fine paid then there is no criminal conviction and he continues to do his job and send others to court for convictions for the very same offence.........
What a total waste of bloody time bringing him to court.

anybody going to court for nct or tax is a waste of time imo

post fines out, court should be only for appeals

gustavo

Always amuses me when I see one of those cars on a roundabout - Usually they haven't a clue of when to indicate.

davet82

i reckon the copper that done him must have had some sort of personal grudge, idk how many times my tax has been out 2 months and what nct??? and the copper lets me drive on

zenno

Ahh the poor garda's job is so difficult in these times we will give them a little leeway and not give them an endorsement as this wouldn't look good on his/her record blah blah blaaaahhhh.

Not good enough, the treating of a person/persons in law should be the same but this is the usual crap we always get, one law for the joe-soap and one for the so-called protectors of society. another human rights breach.






I know, i'm getting carried away again, but there should be one law no matter who/what you do or are.

Chuck Stone

Idiot.

Local-womanizer

I have seen cases of "normal joe soaps" getting off an offence with a contribution to a charity. Hell one judge up here, instead of convicting a person made him climb Croagh Patrick and donate to the church at the top!

Just because this is a guard everyone flies off the handle!

Not condoning the fact he had no tax etc, but I can't and won't criticise, I have no tax either!

davet82

Local-womanizer wrote: »

I have seen cases of "normal joe soaps" getting off an offence with a contribution to a charity. Hell one judge up here, instead of convicting a person made him climb Croagh Patrick and donate to the church at the top!

sounds like my kinda judge

zenno

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Idiot.

I can be sometimes

Thrill

Judge not, lest ye not be judged...and put off the road for 6 months.

zenno

Thrill wrote: »

Judge not, lest ye not be judged...and put off the road for 6 months.

There would be no Thrill in that at all.

Itsdacraic

davet82 wrote: »

i reckon the copper that done him must have had some sort of personal grudge, idk how many times my tax has been out 2 months and what nct??? and the copper lets me drive on

He's notorious around Limerick for dishing out tickets and a lot of people will take a lot of pleasure in this. I actually say him on Monday evening dishing out a ticket.

Now it looks like even his own colleagues don't like him.

tayto lover

Itsdacraic wrote: »

He's notorious around Limerick for dishing out tickets and a lot of people will take a lot of pleasure in this. I actually say him on Monday evening dishing out a ticket.

Now it looks like even his own colleagues don't like him.

Maybe they are just doing their jobs "without fear, favour, malice or ill-will" in accordance with the oath they took.

talla10

Thrill wrote: »

Judge not, lest ye not be judged...and put off the road for 6 months.

You can't get a ban for no tax or NCT. Maximum punishment for NCT is 5 points and/or fine. No tax max punishment is fine. You would never get a Joe Soap with no previous convictions getting that high a fine. I think the Judge did well gave fine of the higher end of things to send out a message. I've seen other motorists get €300 fine for same offences and once paid no conviction recorded.

zenno

Itsdacraic wrote: »

He's notorious around Limerick for dishing out tickets and a lot of people will take a lot of pleasure in this. I actually say him on Monday evening dishing out a ticket.

Now it looks like even his own colleagues don't like him.

A fare few garda out there don't like being out-doors all day and in crappy weather so some of them would do you for the tiniest thing just to get in out of the cold or heat and be glad and happy to do paperwork

jonsnow

Garda Mike O’Shaughnessy, of Kilternan Cross, Croagh, Co Limerick, has been described as one of the most experienced members of the Traffic Corps in Limerick.

His superior, Inspector Paul Reidy told Limerick District Court he saw Garda O’Shaughnessy driving in the garda car park at Henry Street on both dates.

Definitely something personal at play here.Don,t mess with chain of command they will nail you to the wall.Seems like a fair outcome to me given the fact that it is about as small a breach of the law that exists.Its amazing though isn,t it this guy gets up and goes to work every day knowing that what he is stopping and lecturing people for not doing - he hasn,t even bothered to do himself.Its not like it could slip his mind either like a regular punter given that he deals with it every single day.

How many guards actually pay their tax and nct.Is it even 50%.I mean this guy only got done because he really pissed off his direct superior.No chance of this happening to a garda in the normal course of events.Whenever an offduty garda knocks someone down it usually turns out that they haven't bothered to pay it.

Colmustard

I think t is right to throw the book at him, I wonder how many the garde has done for no tax/NCT, I suppose he thought he could just wink at a garde at a checkpoint and flash his badge and then be told to get on his way.

It gives me faith in the force when I see them doing their own.

tayto lover

jonsnow wrote: »

Garda Mike O’Shaughnessy, of Kilternan Cross, Croagh, Co Limerick, has been described as one of the most experienced members of the Traffic Corps in Limerick.

His superior, Inspector Paul Reidy told Limerick District Court he saw Garda O’Shaughnessy driving in the garda car park at Henry Street on both dates.

Definitely something personal at play here.Don,t mess with chain of command they will nail you to the wall.Seems like a fair outcome to me given the fact that it is about as small a breach of the law that exists.Its amazing though isn,t it this guy gets up and goes to work every day knowing that what he is stopping and lecturing people for not doing - he hasn,t even bothered to do himself.Its not like it could slip his mind either like a regular punter given that he deals with it every single day.

How many guards actually pay their tax and nct.Is it even 50%.I mean this guy only got done because he really pissed off his direct superior.No chance of this happening to a garda in the normal course of events.Whenever an offduty garda knocks someone down it usually turns out that they haven't bothered to pay it.

When you are looking around mind you don't bang your chin on that chip on your shoulder. This lad was caught by a Garda don't forget. I have seen many similar instances of Garda catching Garda in fairness to them.

jonsnow

tayto lover wrote: »

When you are looking around mind you don't bang your chin on that chip on your shoulder. This lad was caught by a Garda don't forget. I have seen many similar instances of Garda catching Garda in fairness to them.

In relation to traffic offences (not including drink driving) I would imagine its pretty unusual for an onduty garda to catch another garda and go so far as to have him up in court.This reeks of a personal clash but you believe what you want and I,ll believe what I want-hows that.

kincsem

Garda O’Shaughnessy insists he left work at 3pm on 9 May, earlier than when the Inspector could not have seen him, and that he was at home on a rest day on 31 May.
Having heard the evidence, Judge Eugene O’Kelly said he was satisfied that the charges had been proven against Garda O’Shaughnessy.
But said he was troubled about the implications that a court conviction would have for the garda's career as this was different to an ordinary citizen coming before the courts on road traffic matters. Judge O’Kelly was told Garda O’Shaughnessy had no previous convictions and had an impeccable record, but that any court conviction would be a matter for a disciplinary tribunal at a later date.

He must have fried the judge's brain with that defence (first sentence.)
As said above, one law for some, one law for others.
Of course he has no previous conviction if all his cases are quashed.

up for anything

Having heard the evidence, Judge Eugene O’Kelly said he was satisfied that the charges had been proven against Garda O’Shaughnessy.

But said he was troubled about the implications that a court conviction would have for the garda's career as this was different to an ordinary citizen coming before the courts on road traffic matters.

They don't worry about the implications that a court conviction would have for an ordinary person's career. I don't like the way that a guard gets a higher fine. Shouldn't we all get treated the same. :rolleyes:

Colmustard

up for anything wrote: »

They don't worry about the implications that a court conviction would have for an ordinary person's career. I don't like the way that a guard gets a higher fine. Shouldn't we all get treated the same. :rolleyes:

We aren't all treated the same, the judge does take mitigating circumstances into consideration. Some get higher fines and stiffer sentences then others, there is no mandatory sentences or fines.

up for anything

Colmustard wrote: »

We aren't all treated the same, the judge does take mitigating circumstances into consideration. Some get higher fines and stiffer sentences then others, there is no mandatory sentences or fines.

So it's all arbitrary? Drink driving carries a mandatory sentence though. Would a guard avoid being given a two year ban because of the implications to his career, I wonder.

Ronin247

tayto lover wrote: »

When you are looking around mind you don't bang your chin on that chip on your shoulder. This lad was caught by a Garda don't forget. I have seen many similar instances of Garda catching Garda in fairness to them.

Used to be a time when all Garda signed the driving licence with "Gda" before thier name so when they were stopped they knew each other.Dont know if that still goes on.

He should be convicted, he should know better than anyone else that he should have tax and NCT on a car. I suspect from the Judges comments that if convicted it would have an adverse effect on his job.......that is the idea of laws,they enforce consequences....next thing you will get a lighter sentence for sexual offences if you have the money to pay compensation.

SocSocPol

Most people would have recieved 8 penalty points for the two nct offences alone, meaning if they needed to drive for their job they would lose their job.
That said a €3,500 hit is fairly steep, so all in all the guy has been punished.

zenno

The whole justice system is gone soft. Where's me steel-cap boots.

washman3

Itsdacraic wrote: »

He's notorious around Limerick for dishing out tickets and a lot of people will take a lot of pleasure in this. I actually say him on Monday evening dishing out a ticket.

Now it looks like even his own colleagues don't like him.

Its claimed that many of his colleagues dont even speak to him.!!
Definately notorious around Limerick city and county where he has earned a rather apt nickname. must be the most talked about Garda i've ever heard about,not just because of his zero tolerance approach to his duty but also because of the arrogance and ignorance he displays while doing so.
But strange thing about guys like him is that they seldom perform their duties in the "rougher" parts of Limerick city like Moyross and Southill.
Maybe this is the reason that he is held in such distain.

On a brighter note he has performed some charity fundraisers over the years.

Colmustard

up for anything wrote: »

So it's all arbitrary? Drink driving carries a mandatory sentence though. Would a guard avoid being given a two year ban because of the implications to his career, I wonder.

No that is mandatory the judge has no choice, once you are guilty of the offence its a 2 year ban, no matter who you are or what you do.

But will it get to court, that is another matter.

slimjimmc

Colmustard wrote: »

No that is mandatory the judge has no choice, once you are guilty of the offence its a 2 year ban, no matter who you are or what you do.

But will it get to court, that is another matter.

I think you'll find the law changed on 28th Oct 2011.

zenno

Colmustard wrote: »

No that is mandatory the judge has no choice, once you are guilty of the offence its a 2 year ban, no matter who you are or what you do.

But will it get to court, that is another matter.

We have another problem of the case if the garda is convicted and is sent to desk duty because of something like this as most people want the gardai on the streets instead of doing desk-work ? so maybe the judge knew this and just fined him a large sum instead of giving him a blemish, and as to make sure he's out on the beat. Who knows what goes through a judges mind when it comes to a member to uphold the law.

Colmustard

zenno wrote: »

We have another problem of the case if the garda is convicted and is sent to desk duty because of something like this as most people want the gardai on the streets instead of doing desk-work ? so maybe the judge knew this and just fined him a large sum instead of giving him a blemish, and as to make sure he's out on the beat. Who knows what goes through a judges mind when it comes to a member to uphold the law.

I never heard anyone receiving a driving ban for no tax or nct, maybe I am wrong.

hatrickpatrick

"But said he [the judge] was troubled about the implications that a court conviction would have for the garda's career as this was different to an ordinary citizen coming before the courts on road traffic matters."

This absolutely sickens me. Every individual who comes before an Irish court should be treated legally as an "ordinary citizen". The law should never be selectively applied.
Sickening.

hatrickpatrick

zenno wrote: »

We have another problem of the case if the garda is convicted and is sent to desk duty because of something like this as most people want the gardai on the streets instead of doing desk-work ?

Most people want decent Gardai out on the streets. Not breaking the law is something I would regard as a legitimate criteria for judging this.