Payment-of-tolls case withdrawn against murdered boy Keane Mulready-Woods

Twenty-eight other motorists were fined a total of €266,000.

Twenty-eight motorists have been hit with fines totalling €266,000 after failing to turn up to court today to face charges for repeatedly dodging M50 tolls.

Meanwhile, one of the prosecutions at Dublin District Court, against murdered Drogheda teenager Keane Mulready-Woods, was withdrawn.

Last week it was confirmed that remains found in Priorswood, Coolock and in a burned out vehicle at Trinity Terrace, Dublin 3, were those of the 17-year-old boy.

He had faced five sample counts alleging that as the registered owner of 2011-reg car, he had not paid tolls for journeys on the motorway on June 25, June 27, June 28, June 29 and June 30 last year. Summonses had been sent to his address in Drogheda.

Judge Anthony Halpin agreed to strike out the case after noting from prosecution counsel that the named defendant had passed away.

Driver warned of possible €25,000 in fines

Meanwhile, another defendant, Des Long, of Rathsallagh Park, Shankill, Dublin, who is facing an on-going case featuring allegations of 1,139 unpaid trips in his van, had his case adjourned until May.

He has been warned he could face fines of up to totalling €25,000 after the court heard he was sent 4,417 reminder letters over the motorway charges.

Like all defendants in the list, he was prosecuted on five sample counts.

Mr Long has insisted he had been trying to deal with eFlow which operates barrier free tolling on the M50 for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

Some 51 motorists had been summonsed to appear in court today. Prosecutions against 28 of them went ahead in their absence resulting in hefty fines.

They had records of between 115 and 392 unpaid trips, Judge Halpin was told.

Each one generated three warning letters and thousands of them were sent to the motorists but the vast majority did not reply, the court heard.

One driver was sent 1,176 warning letters

The private car owner with the highest amount of unpaid charges had been sent 1,176 warning letters, and was fined €15,000 today.

Among them were four commercial vehicle owners. A woman registered as the owner of a heavy goods vehicle was fined €15,000 for 129 trips.

Prosecuting counsel Thomas Rice BL (instructed by Pierse Fitzgibbon Solicitors) said a TII official had certificates of ownership as well as the images of the vehicles passing the toll gantry on the M50, on dates from March until August last year.

On top of the fines, which have to be paid within six months, vehicle owners were ordered to pay €350 in prosecution costs.

Fines of up to €5,000 per charge as well as a sentence of up to six months can be imposed.

The court has heard the motorway authority only selected habitual non-payers to face criminal proceedings but no one has been jailed so far.

Fifteen motorists had cases adjourned yesterday/today (MON) to allow TII to engage further with them or for hearings to be held on later dates.

Eight others got strike outs, either as a result of having resolved their debt with the motorway operator, or due to issues with summonses.

M50 tolls regime

The standard M50 toll for an unregistered private car is €3.10 must be paid before 8pm the following day or else there is a €3.00 penalty for missing the deadline. Motorists have 14 days from the date of issue to pay for the journey and the initial penalty; otherwise a further penalty of €41 is applied. After a further 56 days there is an additional penalty charge of €103 and if it remains unpaid legal proceedings follow with the possibility of a court fine of up to €5,000 as well as a jail term of six-months, or both, per offence.

Commercial and goods vehicle owners have to pay higher tolls.

The registered owner of a vehicle is responsible even if they were not driving the vehicle.