Is it legal to be done for speeding 18 months after the event

Iscreamkone

Today a Garda showed up at my old house looking for me. He asked a neighbour to get me to contact him. I turned up at the Garda station a few hours later to receive a court summons re speeding on 28/11/2017 (89km in an 80 zone). My old car was in the pic. If I don’t pay €160 by 30/05/19 I have to go to court on 06/06/19.
Seems fishy but what are my options? Should I just pay the €160? Or risk 5 points in court?
Any help would be appreciated

jay1988

Iscreamkone wrote: »

Today a Garda showed up at my old house looking for me. He asked a neighbour to get me to contact him. I turned up at the Garda station a few hours later to receive a court summons re speeding on 28/11/2017 (89km in an 80 zone). My old car was in the pic. If I don’t pay €160 by 30/05/19 I have to go to court on 06/06/19.
Seems fishy but what are my options? Should I just pay the €160? Or risk 5 points in court?

Pay the fine, the increase in your insurance premium for having 5 points on your licence would be a lot more than €160, especially as they would be on your licence for three years.

brian_t

I thought the fine for speeding was €80 rising to €120 if not paid in the first 28 days.

MorganIRL

Seek proper legal help, but from papers last year wasn't there being alot of cases thrown out by judges cause people hadn't received the fines in a reasonable time..

GM228

MorganIRL wrote: »

Seek proper legal help, but from papers last year wasn't there being alot of cases thrown out by judges cause people hadn't received the fines in a reasonable time..

The law changed to stop this, you now get what is called a "Section 44" notice (aka the third payment option) with the summons to still avoid court and that is why the fine doubles to €160. There is now a statutory presumption you got the original FCPN notice, the excuse "I didn't get it" no longer works.

Back to the OPs query, yes it is perfectly lawful for this once the Guard sought the summons within 6 months of the event. Note, the time the Guard requests the summons and the time it is actually delivered to you are not the same.

unattendedbag

brian_t wrote: »

I thought the fine for speeding was €80 rising to €120 if not paid in the first 28 days.

OP this above is still the case however your fine was most likely sent out and never paid/never got to you. Then a summons follows. If this summons went unserved then the Garda can get it re-issued for a new court date. In theory he can keep doing this. Look at the summons and see what date the application was made for the summons. This must be within 6 months of the offence date.

The attached form gives you an option to pay the increased fine instead of having to go to court. Its supposed to eliminate the common mitigation of; "I didn't get the fine judge, and I wouldn't paid it if I had've got it."

LandoCalrissian

Something similar happened to me

In short if you were speeding just pay the fine

Duffryman

unattendedbag wrote: »

...and I wouldn't would have paid it if I had've got it."

I think this is what the poster probably meant to say.

But yes, overall, so long as the summons was first issued within six months of the date of the offence, your best bet is to just pay it.

Conviction in court will likely lead to a further increased fine, and definitely five penalty points instead of three. And it's very difficult, if not impossible, to see how the outcome in court could be anything other than conviction.

Iscreamkone

Duffryman wrote: »

I think this is what the poster probably meant to say.

But yes, overall, so long as the summons was first issued within six months of the date of the offence, your best bet is to just pay it.

Conviction in court will likely lead to a further increased fine, and definitely five penalty points instead of three. And it's very difficult, if not impossible, to see how the outcome in court could be anything other than conviction.

This summons was issued in March 2019. I don’t know if there was earlier notices or not. The “offence” took place in November 2017.

GM228

Gardaí have 6 months to apply for a summons to be issued, this is known as the "making a complaint" stage. That does not necessarily mean it has to be actually physically issued within 6 months.

Subsequent summons can be issued on foot of the original complaint date. If it is a March 2019 summons it is likely a reissued summons on foot of the original, happens often when the original summons was not served for whatever reason.

Anteayer

I don't understand why the penalty noticed aren't sent out by registered post. It would save a fortune in costs and wasteful use of court and Garda resources and you could recover the few quid it costs in the fine anyway.

Kepler 186f

They are sent by registered post, and guess what when someone knows they’ve done something they shouldn’t and aren’t expecting a package they don’t collect it. Then it goes to summons but like explained above, a Garda then serves the summons which has an option to pay rather than going to court

Iscreamkone

I decided not to pay the €160 fine, and go to court and argue my case with a solicitor in tow. Obviously risking 5 points plus a possible €300 fine.
Well I had a good day yesterday - my case wasn't officially listed for some reason but as I had turned up with my solicitor on the correct day (as per the summons) they said that they'd let the judge decide what to do.
No witness from the speed van company turned up so the judge threw it out. No points and no fine.
Seemingly the van operator was now working at the other end of the country (18 months later) and wasn't available to attend the court.

Fishy from day one but at least it didn't cost me too much in the end.

hullaballoo

Delighted for you, well done on risking it.

To save you from the likely righteous indignation over the weekend and because I'm on my holidays as soon as I get out the door here, I'm going to close this thread.

Happy resolution all around.