Garda wiped driving slate for two judges and RTE presenter

Death and Taxes

JamesBond2010 wrote: »

i know what u are saying but i was not in the way (blocking or any other wise) parked behind another car. I was inside the door of the station waiting for the Guard to do my business.If the guard had just came in the door or looked in the door from the footpath he would have seen me...

Look, were you or were you not illegally parked, if you were you deserved a ticket, if you were not you shouldn't have been given one and should appeal it.

Iwannahurl

WileyCoyote wrote: »

No, basically paying for commiting a crime, ie. illegal parking, serves you right.

Well, I wouldn't call illegal parking a crime (unlike speeding, drink-driving, dangerous driving etc) but it galls me to see the way many motorists seem to believe that calling in to a Garda station automatically absolves them from any obligation to park responsibly.

Unfortunately they often get away with it, which reinforces that belief. In some case AGS members themselves are not giving good example.

The problem with a culture of light-touch regulation/enforcement, along with the quashing of penalties for the benefit of those who are well-connected and clued-in, is that when enforcement occurs only sporadically it is resented.

Complaints about Gardai not doing their job are justified. Complaining that they are doing their job is pure selfishness and begrudgery, IMO.

HondaSami

JamesBond2010 wrote: »

i know what u are saying but i was not in the way (blocking or any other wise) parked behind another car. I was inside the door of the station waiting for the Guard to do my business.If the guard had just came in the door or looked in the door from the footpath he would have seen me...

Did the other car get a ticket?
Was it a guard or ticket warden?
How would he know who you were or where you were?
Did you go back into the guard and ask him about it? Is it a guard from that station that gave you the ticket?

snubbleste

Internal Garda inquiry finds no evidence of Garda corruption in penalty points quashing

It concludes there is no criminal case to answer by any gardaí or those whose points were terminated; and that no gardaí received any reward, monetary or otherwise, for clearing points from licences.
However, the investigation has found that some gardaí were too “liberal” in complying with requests to terminate points and did not follow procedures when doing so. Some may face disciplinary action. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/garda-investigation-finds-no-evidence-of-corruption-in-quashing-of-penalty-points-1.1355315

Move along now, nothing to see here.

Going Forward

Unbelievable.

'We have investigated our behaviour and are pleased to report that we have done nothing wrong.'

seamus

Going Forward wrote: »

Unbelievable.

We have investigated our behaviour and are pleased to report that we have done nothing wrong.

No need to be disingenuous, the statement is bad enough without flat out lying about what it says.

It says that the internal Garda investigation has found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but that procedures were abused or ignored on a number of occasions, which will give rise to disciplinary actions against the Gardai involved.

It will probably go to the ombudsman at this stage, but I'd be surprised if they recommend criminal proceedings. They will however probably find that that the scale of the activity was much larger than the internal Garda investigation has let on and that several Gardai escaped any disciplinary action.

Going Forward

It should have gone to the Ombudsman in the first place, as that would have given some credibility to the exercise.

The fact that no 'criminal' actions occured does not make the practice of arbitrarily wiping the points of the chosen few more acceptable to the stooges who dont have the right connections.

I predict that this will be swept under the carpet. So much for whistle blowing.

snubbleste

Well, the Garda investigating themselves may have had a more productive outcome, we'd never know unless you gave them the chance :cool:

There is a solicitor in Kerry who has stated clearly that AGS were acting outside the remit of the penalty point legislation by removing points from licences without resorting to the courts.
I'd say there is more to come on this scéal yet.

Worztron

The "report" done finds no evidence of corruption. What a total whitewash. Complete rot!

Iwannahurl

Well, it depends on how you define corruption.

Get paid backhanders to quash penalty points, that's corruption.

Quash penalty points as a favour for someone you know, that's just being obliging perhaps?

Worztron

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Well, it depends on how you define corruption.

Get paid backhanders to quash penalty points, that's corruption.

Quash penalty points as a favour for someone you know, that's just being obliging perhaps?

:eek:

kerry4sam

Going Forward wrote: »

...
I predict that this will be swept under the carpet. So much for whistle blowing.

Hear no Evil, See no Evil and Speak no Evil.

You actually get penalised by being honest whilst working within An Garda Síochána it would appear. Cannot imagine the whistle-blowers' working life has been enjoyable since their strong ethics and honesty spilled over and they spoke up.

Difficult situation to comprehend.

Hootanany

Heads should roll.

hey19

Nothing will happen to those cops... Just like the cop in Balbriggan when the money went missing (stolen) a file was sent to the DPP so that's end of story

snubbleste

A journalist doing journalism :eek:
Report ignored bizarre points practices

The Garda report into allegations surrounding the termination of penalty points failed to highlight several serious issues that point to a more widespread culture
An examination of Garda records of more than 100 cases shows that issues over repeat offenders, bizarre reasons for terminating points, or for no reason at all, and the role of gardaí, both in benefiting from and authorising the termination of points, were largely absent from the report.
The report concluded that allegations about repeat offenders were largely unfounded, but the records seen show examples such as eight terminations for three family members in one case, and multiple terminations with no reason at all attached in others.
In one case, a motorist in the south-east had two notices cancelled with no reason at all, and a third cancelled for “speeding due to illness”.

snubbleste

Commissioner confirms a number of gardaí to be disciplined after penalty points report

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said he believes the Ombudsman Commission should now investigate the penalty points controversy. He said: "Reading through the report, particularly reading the appendices and the different cases, I have to say that I got the sense, not so much that they'd looked at the underbelly of this, but that in a lot of cases they were explaining away penalty point terminations that to the reasonable person seemed a little bit unusual."

Going Forward

snubbleste wrote: »

Commissioner confirms a number of gardaí to be disciplined after penalty points report

The RSA has stated similar reservations.