Blunder sees parking ticket summonses thrown out of court

Date Published: 17-Dec-2012

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

A blunder by Galway City Council has seen 350 summonses for non-payment of parking fines thrown out at a special court sitting.

The debacle means the taxpayer is ‘out of pocket’ by up to €75,000 in costs and lost revenue from the tickets and court fines.

And it could leave the door open for hundreds of motorists already convicted in court to appeal their fines.

Nine traffic and community wardens and two senior Council staff attended the ‘wasted’ court day.

Meanwhile, the Council will now be looking at hundreds more summonses issued ahead of the next traffic court on February 19.

Ciarán Hayes, Director of Services for Transportation with the City Council told the Connacht Sentinel: “We are assessing the situation at present with our legal team.”

The cases were thrown out of court after Judge Alan Mitchell noticed a discrepancy on the summonses.

The special ‘traffic court’ sitting was held in Galway Courthouse last Thursday morning, with 349 cases taken by the City Council listed for hearing.

However, Judge Mitchell noticed that the legislation referred to on the summonses did not match the legislation on the ‘pink ticket’ fines.

Each of the cases had to be called individually, and was subsequently struck out by the judge.

Under the traffic warden ticketing system, fines are issued under the Local Authority (Traffic Wardens) Act 1975.

However, the summonses were incorrectly issued under the Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997 and Road Traffic Act 1994, the legislation which should be used if the original ticket is issued by a Garda.

That means the Council has lost out on up to €35,000 in revenue from the parking tickets (plus increased fines imposed by the judge), and up to €40,000 in costs which would have been awarded in court.

Local councillor Padraig Conneely blasted the Council for their failure to prosecute under the correct traffic legislation.

“This will now cost the Council the fines, plus legal fees for their failure to correctly prosecute. It’s unacceptable that they should make such an error, and Director of Services Ciarán Hayes should be held accountable.

“There were eleven Council staff there on the day, that is a huge waste of resources,” said Cllr Conneely.

The Council will now be assessing if it can legally re-issue some of the summonses, and checking hundreds more summonses which have been issued for the next traffic court on February 19.

And anyone convicted under the wrong legislation by the Council can now apply to the court for leave to appeal their conviction.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel