Speeding fine charges dismissed as court told cheques lost in post

CHARGES against three people accused of failing to pay speeding fines were dismissed yesterday after a judge accepted the cheques sent to gardaí must have been lost in the post.

The three will not now have two extra penalty points on their licences after Judge Peter Smithwick said he believed they had sent the money to the fines office at Dublin Castle in time, though the cheques cannot be located by gardaí.

One senior garda, after watching dozens of people being fined and given extra points for non-payment in the first hearing since penalty points were introduced last October, said the rulings on the three cases could not have been foreseen.

Prosecutor Seamus Cassidy had argued there should be a presumption the cheques had not been sent if gardaí cannot find them. Gardaí had trawled the fines office without success, Dublin District Court heard.

Both gardaí and the Director of Public Prosecution are to study the penalty points legislation to check whether the original €80 fine still has to be paid and whether the three will have two penalty points on their licences. A court service source said yesterday the initial fine and points remain and the dismissed charges relate only to non-payment.

James Dunne, Birchdale Close, Swords; Niall Farren, Wilson Road, Mount Merrion, Dublin 4; and Sheena Vernon, Ardeevin Road, Dalkey, were the only ones of nearly 40 to have the charges dismissed. In two of the cases, they presented evidence they had written the cheques.

Two cases were adjourned while fines of €80, €160 and €200 and an extra two penalty points were handed down following the other hearings, either on foot of a guilty plea or by decision of the judge.

Despite the collapse of three of the cases, Superintendent Derek Byrne, of Store Street, said: “The hearings went very well.”

Hundreds more cases are expected before the courts during the summer, he said. On the missing cheques, Supt Byrne said: “We are going to have to look at the situation, one that we could not have foreseen.”

At Court 52, at the former Richmond Hospital, defendants were accused of failing to pay the €80 fine within 28 days and then a €120 fine within the following 28 days.

Judge Smithwick, District Court president, heard over 40 cases in two hours, starting with Patrick Lyons, of Ventry Road, Cabra, who was fined €160 for non-payment of an initial fine for doing 41mph in a 30mph zone.

The speeding offence was not being contested but each of the defendants who pleaded guilty to failing to pay the fine were asked to give an explanation. Some did not turn up and they received the largest fines.

A solicitor for Denise McCann, of Radharc Na Cibhe, Rush, Dublin, explained his client had failed to write down her driving licence number when she sent in her €80. He argued the notice does not clearly state what has to be “duly completed”.

He asked that his client, instead of being fined and receiving penalty points, be given the probation act instead. This was rejected by Judge Smithwick, who said that on realising the mistake, she should have promptly paid the fine.