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Woman who failed to pay TV licence fine taken to jail in five-hour taxi trip

  • 28-02-2015 01:03PM
    #1
    Lapin
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 18,183 ✭✭✭✭Lapin


    This really takes the piss.

    From the Indo -

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/woman-who-failed-to-pay-tv-licence-fine-taken-to-jail-in-fivehour-taxi-trip-31029231.html

    One woman, who was driven from east Donegal to Dublin, told the Irish Independent how two gardai arrived at her home at 7.10am and arrested her. She had paid €212 of a €450 court fine issued for not having a TV licence.

    "I had been paying off the fine and I wanted to finish the payment so I was taken aback to see gardaí at my door.

    In her case alone, the estimated cost of the arrest was €1,000 including €300 for the taxi, garda hours costing around €400, meals, the €20 bus fare and the loss of the entire €238 owed in fines.

    Not often I'm stuck for words, but this one really left me speechless.

    Someone's head needs to roll here. If anything like this happened in the private sector, there would be P45s issued to whoever signed off on a waste of resources on this scale.


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Comments

  • #2
    kneemos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,606 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Have to obey court orders or all hell breaks out.


  • #3
    Lapin
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 18,183 ✭✭✭✭Lapin


    No such thing as cop on then ?


  • #4
    shamrock55
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,442 ✭✭✭shamrock55


    This country really is a joke


  • #5
    Un Croissant
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,052 ✭✭✭Un Croissant


    Only in Ireland.

    Did I get that right?


  • #6
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    Crazy ****, why didn't they just lock her up in a local station cell for 5 hours and save the fair? We're all paying for this glorified taxi service!























    Oh and jailing people for non payment of fines is an outrage anyway of course.


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  • #7
    The Backwards Man
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Lapin wrote: »
    This really takes the piss.

    From the Indo -

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/woman-who-failed-to-pay-tv-licence-fine-taken-to-jail-in-fivehour-taxi-trip-31029231.html

    One woman, who was driven from east Donegal to Dublin, told the Irish Independent how two gardai arrived at her home at 7.10am and arrested her. She had paid €212 of a €450 court fine issued for not having a TV licence.

    "I had been paying off the fine and I wanted to finish the payment so I was taken aback to see gardaí at my door.

    In her case alone, the estimated cost of the arrest was €1,000 including €300 for the taxi, garda hours costing around €400, meals, the €20 bus fare and the loss of the entire €238 owed in fines.

    Not often I'm stuck for words, but this one really left me speechless.

    Someone's head needs to roll here. If anything like this happened in the private sector, there would be P45s issued to whoever signed off on a waste of resources on this scale.
    You obviously have no experience of working with the HSE


  • #8
    S. Goodspeed
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 418 ✭✭S. Goodspeed


    At least now she can watch Fair City and other top quality productions with peace of mind


  • #9
    mass_debater
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,072 ✭✭✭mass_debater


    She should pay for the fcukin licence then like the rest of us and not wasting state funds paid by us taxpayers


  • #10
    kneemos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,606 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    She'd been to court,gotten a fine and a time to pay or jail time.

    SIMPLES.


  • #11
    The Backwards Man
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    mass_debater wrote: »
    She should pay for the fcukin licence then like the rest of us and not wasting state funds paid by us taxpayers

    She wasn't jailed for not paying the TV licence, but the baying mob always overlook the facts.


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  • #12
    Bubbaclaus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,460 ✭✭✭Bubbaclaus


    Harry Palmr wrote: »
    Oh and jailing people for non payment of fines is an outrage anyway of course.

    How to you punish them instead? Fine them again?


  • #13
    Captain Chaos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,195 ✭✭✭✭Captain Chaos


    mass_debater wrote: »
    She should pay for the fcukin licence then like the rest of us and not wasting state funds paid by us taxpayers

    Just do a property tax on it and take it directly from wages before you even get the money.

    The broadcasting charge is just going to be a blanket tax like property tax and water tax anyway.

    Blanket taxes for everyone, got to pay back the IMF for the next 400 years.


  • #14
    mass_debater
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,072 ✭✭✭mass_debater


    The Backwards Man wrote: »
    She wasn't jailed for not paying the TV licence, but the baying mob always overlook the facts.

    No, she was jailed for not paying the fine she received in court for not paying the licence fee. She should just buy a licence like the rest of us have to


  • #15
    Tearin It Up
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 449 ✭✭Tearin It Up


    5 hour taxi trip to prison to spend 3 hours there.

    And she was given the bus fare home. They wouldn't even take her home again.


  • #16
    kneemos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,606 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Captain Chaos wrote: »
    Just do a property tax on it and take it directly from wages before you even get the money.

    The broadcasting charge is just going to be a blanket tax like property tax anyway.

    Blanket tax for everyone, got to pay back the IMF for the next 400 years.

    Been cancelled.


  • #17
    Zaph
    Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 47,418 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    The Backwards Man wrote: »
    She wasn't jailed for not paying the TV licence, but the baying mob always overlook the facts.

    But had she paid for the licence in the first place the whole courts process would have been unnecessary. She paid €212 of the fine. A licence is only €160, so she could have saved herself money and inconvenience on top of what the state would have saved.


  • #18
    Yawns
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,254 ✭✭✭Yawns


    A licence is €160 a year, she could have saved herself a lot depending on how long it's been since she paid it.


  • #19
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,801 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    Is there no prison closer to donegal than dublin?


  • #20
    whiskeyman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,564 ✭✭✭✭whiskeyman


    5 hours in a taxi?


    I'm surprised no one thinks this poor woman has been punished enough!
    5 hours of Joe Duffy style chatting, political opinions and general shyte talk....


  • #21
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    Bubbaclaus wrote: »
    How to you punish them instead? Fine them again?

    The money can be recovered in 99% of cases from - social welfare payments, wages or savings. It can be done humanly - say 10% of income payment every week until paid off. Sure its a bit "technical" but sending people to jail for this kind of thing is really betrays a desperate lack of imagination.


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  • #22
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,296 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    She should've paid her TV licence.

    The only question here is why she is being billed for the cost of the transfer.


  • #23
    kneemos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,606 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Harry Palmr wrote: »
    The money can be recovered in 99% of cases from - social welfare payments, wages or savings. It can be done humanly - say 10% of income payment every week until paid off. Sure its a bit "technical" but sending people to jail for this kind of thing is really betrays a desperate lack of imagination.

    We don't have the legislation to deduct from peoples wages or welfare.


  • #24
    Lapin
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 18,183 ✭✭✭✭Lapin


    The Backwards Man wrote: »
    You obviously have no experience of working with the HSE

    Very little.

    The only state bodies I've worked with are the Department of Education here, and the BBC over yonder.

    I have never seen such a waste of money and manpower in either.


  • #25
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    kneemos wrote: »
    We don't have the legislation to deduct from peoples wages or welfare.

    Well that's what the legislature is for!


  • #26
    Specialun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,068 ✭✭✭Specialun


    Nice cushie earner for the taxi driver

    I bet:

    1/4 related to a guard
    9/4 overcharged and nobody questioned
    10/1 complete random stranger


  • #27
    kneemos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,606 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Harry Palmr wrote: »
    Well that's what the legislature is for!

    Indeed.


  • #28
    Captain Chaos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,195 ✭✭✭✭Captain Chaos


    kneemos wrote: »
    We don't have the legislation to deduct from peoples wages or welfare.

    Yes we do. I know a few people who are having their property tax taken directly from wages.

    And once welfare deducted money from my welfare for a mistake over payment that they made, I brought it to their attention at the time and I was told not to worry about it, it was correct. 3 months later they threaten to take legal action against me! Then they just deducted straight from the source.

    The public sector is a joke.


  • #29
    kneemos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,606 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Captain Chaos wrote: »
    Yes we do. I know a few people who are having their property tax taken directly from wages.

    And once welfare deducted money from my welfare for a mistake over payment they made and I was told not to worry about it, it was correct. 3 months later they threaten to take legal action against me! Then they just deducted straight from the source.

    The public sector is a joke.

    Revenue are controlling property tax afaik.


  • #30
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,296 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    Specialun wrote: »
    Nice cushie earner for the taxi driver

    I bet:

    1/4 related to a guard
    9/4 overcharged and nobody questioned
    10/1 complete random stranger

    I bet you're wrong - it was a nice earner, but it won't have been done on the meter and will have been done under contract. They didn't just ring up the local cab firm or walk out and hail a taxi.


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  • #31
    FalconGirl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 874 ✭✭✭FalconGirl


    An absolute waste of taxpayer funds ffs. She should have been locked in a cell in Donegal for a few hours. Seriously, decision making by public officials is a joke here. Heads should roll.


This discussion has been closed.
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