Driving without tax, ins and licence

KTRIC

First of all this is a hypothetical question for reference only and not attributed to anyone in particular.
Can someone tell me what the penalty is for driving without a licence, tax and insurance is ?

seamus

They're 3 separate offences. The least worst of the 3 is driving without tax, which usually just carries a fine, sometimes may result in impound or destruction of the vehicle.

Driving unlicenced and uninsured are legally roughly on the same level - they will each attract points, a fine, a ban and sometimes a jail term. Traditionally though driving without insurance offences are punished more harshly because there's often an honest reason why someone may be unlicenced (licence expired, etc).

Driving without a licence because you've already been banned is a separate offence again, in case you were wondering.

Often where someone is presented in court with multiple offences from the same "incident", e.g. being stopped by the Gardai, a judge will only impose a conviction for the most serious crime (e.g. driving uninsured) and strike out the less serious charges.

I'll dig out the actual legislation shortly.

gustafo

KTRIC wrote: »

First of all this is a hypothetical question for reference only and not attributed to anyone in particular.
Can someone tell me what the penalty is for driving without a licence, tax and insurance is ?

prob a few years off the road and a huge fine for 1st time caught, get caught again and most likely jail time.

seamus

OK, I'll try and get these right because road traffic legislation is a bit of a mess, people can correct me if I'm wrong. The original set of laws was published in 1961 and then been tweaked and changed tonnes of times since. You can get consolidated, "This is what the law looks like now" publications, but not online or not free.

Driving without tax:
It's not quite so simple because it's a revenue/finance issue more than a traffic one. In general you can be fined up to about €1,000, typical fines will be around the same amount as your actual tax plus a premium. If the tax is out of date by more than two months, the Gardai can seize the vehicle, and you will have to pay impound charges to release it - once you've paid the tax. So that can be quite expensive; If it takes you a week to pay your tax, the impound fees could be €500+.
Non-display of a tax disc is a separate offence, carries a small enough fine (between €100 and €200). Often if you can show that your car was taxed at the time or that you retrospectively paid the tax, the judge will strike out this offence.

Driving without a licence:
- Up to €1,000 fine if your licence has expired in the last 12 months
- Up to €2,000 otherwise
- Up to €5,000 and/or up to six months in jail if you're disqualified from holding a licence

Notes: There is no automatic ban, but the judge has the power to issue one if they feel it's necessary. Failure to produce a licence when requested, is a separate and much smaller offence.

Driving without insurance:
- 5 points, mandatory court appearance, fine up to €5,000.
- First offence, carries an automatic two-year minimum ban. Though the judge can waive/reduce that with "special reason" (e.g. if you need to drive for work)
- Any subsequent offence occurring within 3 years of the last offence carries a minimum 4 year ban. (RTA 2010 afaics)

Notes: Driving without displaying insurance is a smaller and separate offence. It is also an offence to allow someone to drive your vehicle if they are uninsured. Penalties for you are similar to the above.

Ken.

Nearly everyone getting charged with driving with no licence,tax,insurance will get 3 additional charges of failing to produce all 3 also. Which carry separate penalties. Mostly I've seen them taken "into account" by Judges but if you're being an arsehole the judge could do you for them.