(SIX!) Gardai sent to arrest mother of unpaid fine at 3.30AM

Ghandee

Was this a bit heavy handed by the Gardai?

Its not like they were going after a murderer, the woman in question had a €250 fine for using her phone whilst driving outstanding.

SIX gardai called to the home of a mother just before 3am to arrest her and bring her to prison over an unpaid €250 traffic fine.

The 27-year-old woman has appeared in Limerick District Court where Judge Eugene O'Kelly extended the time to allow her appeal the case. The case arose after the Limerick woman was allegedly caught using a mobile phone while driving in 2010.

However, she insists she was not aware of the initial fine or proceedings in the District Court last May when she was convicted and fined €250. When the court fine was left unpaid, a penal warrant was subsequently issued and forwarded to gardai.

The mother, who lives in a halting site in Limerick, spoke after the court sitting on condition of anonymity. Last Wednesday morning, gardai arrived at her home just before 3am. "It was about 2.45am and they knocked at my back door and they had flash lamps and at first I didn't know who it was," she said. "Then when I opened the door, it was the guards –about six of them. "When they walked in, they asked us what our names were because my sister was there as well and my mam was in bed and my baby was in bed.

"When they came in then, they said, 'There is a warrant for your arrest'. "I asked them for what and they said for a mobile phone," she said. The woman pleaded with the officers not to bring her to prison because of her three-month-old son. She told gardai she would sort it out that week. "I said I was not going up to the prison – no way. "They were fair enough about it, but it was the hour of the morning that was upsetting," she said.

Last Friday, her solicitor Sarah Ryan made an application in Limerick District Court to extend time to allow an appeal. Granting the application, Judge O'Kelly said he hoped there was some "extraordinary" reason for the gardai attempting to execute the penal warrant at that time of the morning. Insp John Deasy said it was "not the normal practice" and told the court there may have been specific reasons as to why it was done at that time but did not identify what they were.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/six-gardai-sent-to-arrest-mum-for-unpaid-fine-at-3am-3323199.html


Bit OTT by the Gards, or completely justified?

MagicMarker

She is a traveler living in a halting site, would you go on your lonesome?

Thought not.

Immaculate Pasta

Well as the old saying goes: Don't do the crime if you can't get up at the right time. Or something like that... :cool:

snubbleste

Poor things need all the overtime they can get.

Frynge

A little over the top alright.

Where To

Has to be more to the story than that.

baldshin

Don't think it should matter what time of day it is when the gardai are dealing with an offence. She should have just paid her fine and avoided all this.

Dodge

MagicMarker wrote: »

She is a traveler living in a halting site, would you go on your lonesome?

Thought not.

I'd imagine the 2.30 am time is related to that too. It seems the women were awake, but there were no men in the house.

Hurricane Carter

Given that she's living on a halting site, I reckon the Gardai had a few more numbers in case of an incident. Perhaps the same reason for the time they called...

..still..seems a bit excessive for that kind of offence.

seamus

Halting site. No way in hell the Gardai would arrive onto a halting site in broad daylight to try action an arrest warrant, there'd be murder.

Seems fair enough to me.

snubbleste

The article says she was allegedly caught using a mobile phone while driving
So was she caught driving using a phone or not

Ghandee

MagicMarker wrote: »

She is a traveler living in a halting site, would you go on your lonesome?

Thought not.

Definitely not :eek:

I would though, as a Garda, prob not go until the law allowed me to.
3am would be against the law.

"They (penal warrants) should not be executed after midnight or before 7am,"

snubbleste

Ghandee wrote: »

Definitely not :eek:
I would though, as a Garda, prob not go until the law allowed me to.
3am would be against the law.

What law

Ghandee

seamus wrote: »

Halting site. No way in hell the Gardai would arrive onto a halting site in broad daylight to try action an arrest warrant, there'd be murder.

Seems fair enough to me.

The dead of night would be safer than daylight hours?

seamus

Ghandee wrote: »

I would though, as a Garda, prob not go until the law allowed me to.
3am would be against the law.

The judge only said the warrants should be executed between 7am and midnight, not that they must be.
If the warrant had been illegally executed, the judge would have struck it out and sent her home.

The dead of night would be safer than daylight hours?

For a start, they won't see you coming. As mentioned above though, the Gardai clearly knew it would be mostly women and no men that time of the night. So they picked that time purposely.

seamus

seamus wrote: »

Halting site. No way in hell the Gardai would arrive onto a halting site in broad daylight to try action an arrest warrant, there'd be murder.

Or to force an eviction, they usually tell council workers to try it. :pac:

My name is URL

She says herself that the Gardai were fair and friendly... can't really fault them in this case tbh. As for arriving at such an hour of the morning... well they avoided unnecessary confrontation and agro which was the point of that.

Dodge

Ghandee wrote: »

The dead of night would be safer than daylight hours?

Depends who's around, doesn't it?

Hurricane Carter

Ghandee wrote: »

The dead of night would be safer than daylight hours?

I think even they sleep at night..sometimes.

petethebrick

baldshin wrote: »

Don't think it should matter what time of day it is when the gardai are dealing with an offence. She should have just paid her fine and avoided all this.

Exactly. I reckon that the guards should mount a pre-christmas operation involving dragging people with unpaid parking tickets out of their beds in the middle of the night and pulling them through the town tied naked to the back of a squad car. It would send the message out that these parking ticket fines need to be paid and bring in some extra cash for the government prior to Christmas

magma69

And the scumbags that are responsible for inflicting hardship and poverty on ordinary people for years to come get big fat pensions.

Good to see we have our priorities right.

Ghandee

snubbleste wrote: »

What law

They attempted to serve a penal warrant.

These must be served before midnight, and after seven am.

The Gards run the risk of these warrants being ripped up if the technicalities aren't right.

joydivision

Should the garda be doing this stupid arrest during the day when they are busy ?

castletownman

Unpaid fine?

Sure ya can't be doin that!

Stinicker

I stopped reading and lost sympathy at the words "halting site".

h2005

magma69 wrote: »

And the scumbags that are responsible for inflicting hardship and poverty on ordinary people for years to come get big fat pensions.

Good to see we have our priorities right.

Is this going to be brought up every time someone is arrested? Its getting a bit tiresome at this stage

snubbleste

Ghandee wrote: »

They attempted to serve a penal warrant.
These must be served before midnight, and after seven am.
The Gards run the risk of these warrants being ripped up if the technicalities aren't right.

What law
You've stated there is a law. Point it out clearly.

BizzyC

Bit of a misleading title.
They didn't send 6 guards into a quiet housing estate to drag a woman out of the house over €250.

They sent 6 to ensure the safety of their personnel given the location the woman lived.

h2005

seamus wrote: »

The judge only said the warrants should be executed between 7am and midnight, not that they must be.
If the warrant had been illegally executed, the judge would have struck it out and sent her home.

For a start, they won't see you coming. As mentioned above though, the Gardai clearly knew it would be mostly women and no men that time of the night. So they picked that time purposely.

Why would there be no men there at that time?

snubbleste

Ok, I'm going to ask the obvious question. Why would there be no men at the location at night?

joydivision

snubbleste wrote: »

Ok, I'm going to ask the obvious question. Why would there be no men at the location at night?

Maybe the gaurds had information the men went out at night doing various night time activities .

Korvanica

Misleading title...

Came here wondering how a woman gave birth to an unpaid fine....

BizzyC

magma69 wrote: »

And the scumbags that are responsible for inflicting hardship and poverty on ordinary people for years to come get big fat pensions.

Good to see we have our priorities right.

Rabble Rabble Rabble, Bankers!
Rabble Rabble Rabble, Fiana Fail!

magma69

Stinicker wrote: »

I stopped reading and lost sympathy at the words "halting site".

If you replaced the words "halting site" with "asylum seeker's accommodation" you'd probably get a ban and a torrent of abuse from people here.

Jeez. Storm in a tea cup here.

Right decision made by Gardai seems to be the only shocker here.

No one got injured, no one got hurt. Common sense was used. Job well done in my eyes.

Kess73

Ghandee wrote: »

They attempted to serve a penal warrant.

These must be served before midnight, and after seven am.

The Gards run the risk of these warrants being ripped up if the technicalities aren't right.

In certain circumstances they can be served at any time.The judge made comment to this, and did not strike the case out.

Not wanting to get too much into the details of things, but there appears tp be a lot more to this than a person with a totally clean record other than one unpaid fine to their name.

I am sure a lot of Limerick folk who listened to local radio today and yesterday or read local papers will find some of the names and the location as being very familiar sounding.

laoch na mona

a bit of discrimination id say
its because shes a traveler they sent so many

magma69

Kess73 wrote: »

In certain circumstances they can be served at any time.The judge made comment to this, and did not strike the case out.

Not wanting to get too much into the details of things, but there appears tp be a lot more to this than a person with a totally clean record other than one unpaid fine to their name.

I am sure a lot of Limerick folk who listened to local radio today and yesterday or read local papers will find some of the names and the location as being very familiar sounding.

Would it start with a C and end with a G by any chance?

cournioni

seamus wrote: »

Halting site. No way in hell the Gardai would arrive onto a halting site in broad daylight to try action an arrest warrant, there'd be murder.

Seems fair enough to me.

This.

I'm sure there was a fair amount of Garda intelligence on this before they went in also, considering that it was an arrest warrant they would need to know that the woman was definitely at the address before going in and therefore know what they would be facing.

seamus

h2005 wrote: »

Why would there be no men there at that time?

I dunno, but there obviously wasn't. Maybe the men were down the pub, out looking for work, etc?

snubbleste

laoch na mona wrote: »

a bit of discrimination id say
its because shes a traveler they sent so many

Maybe she can pursue it under the Equality Acts

johnwest288

Que **Phone footage of arrest overdubbed with "AH HEYOR leave it out" Woman:rolleyes:

snubbleste

seamus wrote: »

I dunno, but there obviously wasn't. Maybe the men were down the pub, out looking for work, etc?

At 0330?

Theanswers

joydivision wrote: »

Maybe the gaurds had information the men went out at night doing various night time activities .

Stealing copper and causing general trouble?

Yakult

Doesnt seem ott at all.

BraziliaNZ

Travellers don't pay fines, insurance on cars, road tax, nothing like that. Fair play to the police, they get away with murder (probably literally) in Ireland.

Boombastic

joydivision wrote: »

Maybe the gaurds had information the men went out at night doing various night time activities .

Should have followed them;)

seamus

snubbleste wrote: »

At 0330?

*shrug*

Why do you think there were no men there at 0330?

delthedriver

It seems like an awful waste of taxpayers money.

laoch na mona

Ghandee wrote: »

Was this a bit heavy handed by the Gardai?

Its not like they were going after a murderer, the woman in question had a €250 fine for using her phone whilst driving outstanding.



http://www.independent.ie/national-news/six-gardai-sent-to-arrest-mum-for-unpaid-fine-at-3am-3323199.html


Bit OTT by the Gards, or completely justified?

very subtle traveler bash because for some reason that sort of discrimination is okay

Ghandee

Dodge wrote: »

I'd imagine the 2.30 am time is related to that too. It seems the women were awake, but there were no men in the house.

How did you come to that conclusion from the linked article incidentally?