Never received summons - banned from driving?

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