Never received summons - banned from driving?

rd95

This site has answered my questions for years but this is my first time posting.

This is a strange one!

My brother was pulled over around 6 months ago in a car he had only recently bought at the time, the two gardaí that pulled him over didn't give him a reason as to why he was being pulled over but he's 21 in a boy-racerish car so they initiated the typical routine of "are you on drugs?, do you have any drugs on you?" and all that nonsense. He was not on drugs nor he have any on him. They wrote him up for having "illegal" number plates (he had bought the car the way it was he didn't buy the plates himself) and they also asked him for his licence, he did not have it on him at the time and they told him to produce it at a nearby garda station and they let him drive away. He did produce the licence at the garda station within a week.

Anyway, he was expecting a fine for the number plates in the post but it never came. Then out of nowhere last week he read in the paper about a court case being heard in his name the day before stating that he received 2 years off the road for no insurance and no licence?? He knows it has to be in relation to this incident because he has not been pulled over since then and hadn't been for a good while before either. Of course he and I both were shocked because
1. He did not receive a court summons or fine of any kind.
2. He had insurance when the guards stopped him and never has driven uninsured.
3 He has had a full irish driving licence for 4 years.

There is just so much I don't understand about this, no fine? no summons? and another thing which I found odd is that if the gardaí really suspected him of not having a driving licence or insurance why would they let him drive away, the whole thing is just highly unusual more than anything else. Any comments, advice are all much appreciated, thanks for taking the time to read

keithclancy

rd95 wrote: »

This site has answered my questions for years but this is my first time posting.

This is a strange one!

My brother was pulled over around 6 months ago in a car he had only recently bought at the time, the two gardaí that pulled him over didn't give him a reason as to why he was being pulled over but he's 21 in a boy-racerish car so they initiated the typical routine of "are you on drugs?, do you have any drugs on you?" and all that nonsense. He was not on drugs nor he have any on him. They wrote him up for having "illegal" number plates (he had bought the car the way it was he didn't buy the plates himself) and they also asked him for his licence, he did not have it on him at the time and they told him to produce it at a nearby garda station and they let him drive away. He did produce the licence at the garda station within a week.

Anyway, he was expecting a fine for the number plates in the post but it never came. Then out of nowhere last week he read in the paper about a court case being heard in his name the day before stating that he received 2 years off the road for no insurance and no licence?? He knows it has to be in relation to this incident because he has not been pulled over since then and hadn't been for a good while before either. Of course he and I both were shocked because
1. He did not receive a court summons or fine of any kind.
2. He had insurance when the guards stopped him and never has driven uninsured.
3 He has had a full irish driving licence for 4 years.

There is just so much I don't understand about this, no fine? no summons? and another thing which I found odd is that if the gardaí really suspected him of not having a driving licence or insurance why would they let him drive away, the whole thing is just highly unusual more than anything else. Any comments, advice are all much appreciated, thanks for taking the time to read

Sounds like a mistake, contact the Garda station, the Summon should have been hand delivered.

Someone has the same name as your brother maybe?

rd95

keithclancy wrote: »

Sounds like a mistake, contact the Garda station, the Summon should have been hand delivered.

Yeah I heard before that it a court summons had to be hand delivered, he's going into the garda station today I believe, I just hope this won't be as much hassle as to fix as I think it's going to be!

Youngblood.III

Go to court clerk lodge a appeal, this could have a bond payable. Then contact the garda involved explain what happened. You'll get another date in court to explain...hopefully Judge will be fair.

rd95

Snotaul Goodman wrote: »

Someone has the same name as your brother maybe?

Nope it had my brothers address in the paper aswell, plus he doesn't have a common name, don't know anyone else in our area with the same surname.

rd95

Youngblood.III wrote: »

Go to court clerk lodge a appeal, this could have a bond payable. Then contact the garda involved explain what happened. You'll get another date in court to explain...hopefully Judge will be fair.

Okay thanks I'll tell him to do that. I know I'm obviously going to be biased because it's my brother but I really believe the gardaí are at fault because he didn't receive a summons and they are meant to be hand delivered by a garda, hopefully the judge will take this into account!

savagethegoat

solicitor job I reckon

rd95

savagethegoat wrote: »

solicitor job I reckon

I think you're right! annoying paying a solicitor for something that wasn't your fault but sure these things happen unfortunately.

Cee-Jay-Cee

First thing to do is get a solicitor to lodge an appeal immediately. You have 14 days from the court date to do so, so make sure it's done within that time as it'll save a lot of hassle later.

Once that's done get your brother to bring everything (driving licence and insurance) to the Garda station and ask to speak to the Garda. His name will probably be in the paper as the one who prosecuted your brother.

Ant695

Reading through this I was wondering should you not be told in some way shape or form about being banned as well since if he hadn't seen it in the paper he could have been pulled over and thinking everything is fine then told actually he is banned?

Fey!

Maybe go and talk to the court clerk, as well as to his solicitor.

monkeysnapper

This sounds absurd . how can that even happen . I'd defo be going to get legal advice .

savagethegoat

Ant695 wrote: »

Reading through this I was wondering should you not be told in some way shape or form about being banned as well since if he hadn't seen it in the paper he could have been pulled over and thinking everything is fine then told actually he is banned?

it actually makes me wonder if the address they have for him is out of date and all the correspondence and the summons went elsewhere.

millington

Similar happened me twice. Both times I produced licence & insurance within 10 days. The first time, I heard the Gardai had been in the area looking for my house but couldn't find it. Eventually got summons in post. Went to court with documents and all was thrown out.

Last week same story again, summons landed in post even though I had produced again for the time in question. Court was 200 miles away so rang the Garda and he was highly confused, said that the summons must have been automatically generated because the Gard I produced too didn't put it in right on the system. Sent him down documents and all thrown out again.

A waste of my time due to negligence both times it seems :mad:

Interestingly, on the first court date, the judge adjourned all cases where the defendant wasn't present and the Garda had not hand delivered the summons.

Grab All Association

Any update?