Can they do this?

kincaid

Hi, my friend had just purchased a secondhand jeep from main dealer and had it sitting outside his house out in the country,
Now at 3AM in the morning his girlfriend saw lights outside and looks out and 2 garda were looking around the jeep,jeep is 100% genuine but is uk reg.

The gate was closed but they had jumped over it, garda car was parked on the road.
Have they the right to come on to the property like this especially at this time etc...seems very odd

Jesus.

Nope. Not without a warrant.

jayo99

strictly speaking the VRT should be paid within 24 hours so maybe they are following up on that.

btw, Its's midnight or is my watch 3 hours slow??

coolbeans

kincaid wrote: »

Hi, my friend had just purchased a secondhand jeep from main dealer and had it sitting outside his house out in the country,
Now at 3AM in the morning his girlfriend saw lights outside and looks out and 2 garda were looking around the jeep,jeep is 100% genuine but is uk reg.a

The gate was closed but they had jumped over it, garda car was parked on the road.
Have they the right to come on to the property like this especially at this time etc...seems very odd

What's happened since 3am?

Noccy_Mondy

I take it you mean a main dealer in the UK? I.e. he imported it himself. An english reg car shouldn't be let out of a dealer here still on english plates.

coolbeans

coolbeans wrote: »

What's happened since 3am?

Op needs to answer this question before we go on I reckon. Your description is full of holes.

michellie

jayo99 wrote: »

strictly speaking the VRT should be paid within 24 hours so maybe they are following up on that.

btw, Its's midnight or is my watch 3 hours slow??

24 hours ??

coolbeans

michellie wrote: »

24 hours ??

Yep

jhegarty

Possible there were just checking that your house was not being burgled.

kincaid

Purchased in northern Ireland earleir at 1pm he says so was home and on his street at by 2.30pm only but to be out someones house at 3am,

they were examining around the vehicle

Toyotafanboi

he should have went outside and asked. i know i would have if 2 gardai were in my front garden at 3am poking around my car.

corktina

jayo99 wrote: »

strictly speaking the VRT should be paid within 24 hours so maybe they are following up on that.

btw, Its's midnight or is my watch 3 hours slow??

Nonsense. You have thirty days to complete the entire VRT procedure. Google it

dmc17

corktina wrote: »

Nonsense. You have thirty days to complete the entire VRT procedure. Google it

Nonsense indeed.

From Revenue.ie

Under current legislation, you are obliged to register your vehicle within the 30 day limit. If you fail to register your vehicle within 30 days of the vehicle entering the State, you risk having the vehicle detained. Notwithstanding this, an additional charge of VRT will be applied by Revenue at the time of registration, for the period your vehicle remained unregistered in the State

ironclaw

Speculating here but if a similar jeep or description was out i.e. Post office job, Stolen etc then they may have just been following it up. I have no idea, going on your description alone, why you didn't go out and ask. That to me is more suspect.

You sure they were Gardai? i.e Clothed, marked car etc? Was it Customs? Different kettle of fish there.

fmcg_scribe

I suppose that the Gardai and Customs & Excise can take an interest in a UK reg car at any time, especially if the car is a premium/luxury car.

If you're a tourist or visiting friends or relatives while driving a UK reg car in Ireland, you have to expect to be challenged by Gardai and Customs & Excise and you should have sufficient paperwork in the car or on your person to back up what story you give. If you're visiting, your return ferry ticket should suffice.

If you are resident in Ireland and have imported UK car yourself, I think that you are expected to bring the car to your nearest vehicle registration office within 24 hours of bringing the car into the country. However, the regulations may be different if you are a motor trader who imports UK cars.

ironclaw

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

bring the car to your nearest vehicle registration office within 24 hours of bringing the car into the country.

Its now 30 days at most.

corktina

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

I suppose that the Gardai and Customs & Excise can take an interest in a UK reg car at any time, especially if the car is a premium/luxury car.

If you're a tourist or visiting friends or relatives while driving a UK reg car in Ireland, you have to expect to be challenged by Gardai and Customs & Excise and you should have sufficient paperwork in the car or on your person to back up what story you give. If you're visiting, your return ferry ticket should suffice.

If you are resident in Ireland and have imported UK car yourself, I think that you are expected to bring the car to your nearest vehicle registration office within 24 hours of bringing the car into the country. However, the regulations may be different if you are a motor trader who imports UK cars.

again, nonsense....you have 7 days to make an appointment at the NCTS and thirty days to complete the process.

djimi

ironclaw wrote: »

Speculating here but if a similar jeep or description was out i.e. Post office job, Stolen etc then they may have just been following it up. I have no idea, going on your description alone, why you didn't go out and ask. That to me is more suspect.

To be honest, this to me sounds like the most likely explanation. Would a Gardai with a flashlight even be able to tell if the car is within the legal time frame to get registered or not?

readytosnap

You should of rang the guards

Xennon

Jaysus Id be delighted if they were keeping an eye on my stuff.

stealthyspeeder

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

If you're a tourist or visiting friends or relatives while driving a UK reg car in Ireland, you have to expect to be challenged by Gardai and Customs & Excise and you should have sufficient paperwork in the car or on your person to back up what story you give. If you're visiting, your return ferry ticket should suffice.

Not unless you hit a checkpoint.

You certainly wouldn't expect anyone to be snooping around your house looking at your car in the middle of the night on the day you bought it!

Read the Revenues VRT 5 leaflet section 5.4

Unregistered vehicles, except those, which have been brought within the authorisation regime, should be registered not later than 30 days following their arrival in the State. Where this legal requirement is ignored intervention will become necessary. The policy here is to deal with each vehicle in a manner proportionate to the degree of evasion. These instructions provide for the imposition of a greater penalty in proportion to the extent of the delay and the amount of VRT evaded.

5.4.1 Challenging Vehicles: Guidelines

With the exception of checkpoint activity, enforcement staff should not engage in random challenges of unregistered vehicles without reasonable suspicion. Such vehicles should be targeted primarily on the basis of profiling, e.g. previous sightings, information received or other circumstances giving rise to reasonable suspicion.
While targeting of specific vehicles is an essential element of VRT enforcement, it should be noted that, for deterrent purposes, general enforcement in an open and transparent way is also desirable. For this reason, VRT enforcement should always be included in multi functional/agency checkpoints whether set up by the Revenue Enforcement units or jointly with an Garda Síochána. Officers will be faced with a variety of circumstances in dealing with unregistered vehicles. These circumstances and the required action are detailed in the following

Spook_ie

Probably MI fixing a tracking device or other bug to car, admit it OP you're really a foreign agent!

kincaid

it was the girl in the house that seen them, it was the gardai but come back the next evening i believe and mentioned something about stolen cars but this was a jeep and the reg no. was clearly visible and a quick check on the system would have shows that up so dont know what that was all about

visual

kincaid wrote: »

it was the girl in the house that seen them, it was the gardai but come back the next evening i believe and mentioned something about stolen cars but this was a jeep and the reg no. was clearly visible and a quick check on the system would have shows that up so dont know what that was all about

If a car or jeep was stolen sticking on UK plates would be harder to track than irish reg that could quickly be verified.

mcgarrett

What part of the country are you in OP?

michellie

coolbeans wrote: »

Yep

Actually, nope!