VRT customs In BAllycoolin D15

Gmodified

just seen customs trying to catch all these people working in Xerox , IBM , Creative and driving foreign registration cars.


The only thing springs to my mind is :

Why you go and F3ck yourself then try real challenge and catch some LV, RO reg cars. Big deal going after easy target , some poor dude working 10 hours in tech support.

DukeDredd

Yip - same thing happened to a friend of mine that lives out in the country. She is French and the boys were waiting for her outside her gate when she was leaving for work. You would think they could spend their time & resources staking out some criminals instead. She drives a bloody '89 fiesta for Gods sake - not like they were going to get 20 grand off her for a huge merc or anything!

eth0_

How do you know they AREN'T out catching Latvian and Romanian reg cars? FYI Latvia is part of Europe and therefore people driving LV reg cars are in the same boat as the French/Spanish/etc working in Ballycoolin.

I used to work in there and it always gave me a laugh when customs did a swoop there, two or three times a year. There were LOADS of foreigners I worked with there who simply ignored the law and believed they were above having to change their plates - and these were people who'd been working in Ireland for YEARS in many cases.

F*ck them! They're told at induction they need to change their plates, and are warned that customs WILL get them. If they want to laugh at the law of our country, and drive around uninsured (because they may as well be, if a claim is made it'll be proven that they're resident in Ireland and not the country they're insured in), they deserve all they get.

woody

etho I agree we pay enough for insurance and tax and cars so everyone is bound under the same law and penalties.

It's not racist it is simply fair play

Sleipnir

Oh, the usual "why aren't they out looking for real criminals"

Their customs officials, not Gardai. It's their job to make sure that people aren't importing anything illegally or without paying their dues.

Anyway, there's a rule that if you can prove you owned the car in another country and can prove you lived there for a certain amount of time, you don't have to pay VRT.

Gmodified

eth0_ wrote:

How do you know they AREN'T out catching Latvian and Romanian reg cars? FYI Latvia is part of Europe and therefore people driving LV reg cars are in the same boat as the French/Spanish/etc working in Ballycoolin

I used to work in there and it always gave me a laugh when customs did a swoop there, two or three times a year. There were LOADS of foreigners I worked with there who simply ignored the law and believed they were above having to change their plates - and these were people who'd been working in Ireland for YEARS in many cases.

F*ck them! They're told at induction they need to change their plates, and are warned that customs WILL get them. If they want to laugh at the law of our country, and drive around uninsured (because they may as well be, if a claim is made it'll be proven that they're resident in Ireland and not the country they're insured in), they deserve all they get.

Well. i know that they are not going after LV cars and would it expect to see a change, as they would have the same attitude as your. Yes, all the guys fall in to the same group but all the guys are not included in the process.
I can see yourself standing outside ballycooling trying to catch tech support guy driving his Punto to work, which is actually insured and covered outside his country of origin for entire duration of the policy.OK. road tax is different and everybody should pay it.


but
Why you go out there and pull this big bloke out of his LV 5 series and tell him that he owns you money.

and now ask yourself , why you wouldn't

eth0_

Gmodified wrote:

I can see yourself standing outside ballycooling trying to catch tech support guy driving his Punto to work, which is actually insured and covered outside his country of origin for entire duration of the policy

What??? Who told you that? No policy will cover you to have your car in another country for the entire year! You're allowed a certain number of days abroad for the purposes of holidays, i've never heard of a motor policy that allows you to spend 365 days of the year in a foreign country.

Oh and they're not picking on 'foreigners', because plenty of Northern/UK drivers get picked up in Ballycoolin etc too!

Gmodified

Oh and they're not picking on 'foreigners',


i never said this and don't start this racist story with me because you are starting to sound like afro-american.

I am aware of UK reg cars and this falls in the same easy category as call center guys. What I am saying is that LV and other this exotic reg cars get away with it.


just have look at at some foreign insurance companies as they have WebPages in English and you will see that isn’t unusual to have this kind of policy.

They even offer special policy for foreign people staying on contract etc.

alias no.9

Gmodified wrote:

Well. i know that they are not going after LV cars

I wish I had super powers and was able to monitor the every move of customs and excise like you can.

Gmodified wrote:

...trying to catch tech support guy driving his Punto to work, which is actually insured and covered outside his country of origin for entire duration of the policy.OK. road tax is different and everybody should pay it.
but
Why you go out there and pull this big bloke out of his LV 5 series and tell him that he owns you money.

and now ask yourself , why you wouldn't

This is not about VRT or Insurance it's about Licensing. We have licensing laws and they are in breach of them. If they are not, then they have nothing to worry about. The vast majority of these people would not be liable for VRT anyway as they would be able to claim relief based on transfer of residency. However, they become almost untraceable when it comes to road traffic offences and this is the problem.

eth0_

alias no.9 wrote:

I wish I had super powers and was able to monitor the every move of customs and excise like you can..

hahahah

Gmodified - exactly where was I being racist? I think my point was very fair, if I was being racist i'd hardly have included the UK reg drivers in my last point.

Bottom line : if you break the law - and you ARE committing a criminal offence by not changing your plates - expect to be punished.

Bogger77

Gmodified wrote:

Oh and they're not picking on 'foreigners',


i never said this and don't start this racist story with me because you are starting to sound like afro-american.

I am aware of UK reg cars and this falls in the same easy category as call center guys. What I am saying is that LV and other this exotic reg cars get away with it.


just have look at at some foreign insurance companies as they have WebPages in English and you will see that isn’t unusual to have this kind of policy.

They even offer special policy for foreign people staying on contract etc.

AFAIK, doesn't your car have to be legally on the road for the insurance to be valid? If you're in breach of any part of the local countries laws, your insurance is invalid, and these guys are clearly in breach, as they haven't registered the cars. Hence their insurance is invalid, as many people involved in crashes with non Irish cars find out.

My insurance policy, covers me for 365 days a year in the UK and NI, and for 30 days at a time in EU countries (I've to renew the cover by calling them). But, if for example, my car was in a collision in the UK, and my car wasn't in compliance with UK laws, my insurance company would declare my cover invalid.

Sleipnir

Also, you are automatically covered, by law, for TPFT in any EU country under the
insurance policy in your home country.
Probably only for a limited time though.

Gmodified

However, they become almost untraceable when it comes to road traffic offences and this is the problem.

you don't have too look far as UK reg car can speed through all gatso cameras over this side of the border and get away.



Originally Posted by Gmodified
Well. i know that they are not going after LV cars

I wish I had super powers and was able to monitor the every move of customs and excise like you can.

it's not about having superpowers it’s just matter of being aware what happens around you, but this could be too much work for some peopl and it's easier to believe everything is done for you the right way.

it’s irrelevant at this point where i take my information from, so yes in my free time i become BATMAN

Gmodified

Bogger77 wrote:

AFAIK, doesn't your car have to be legally on the road for the insurance to be valid? If you're in breach of any part of the local countries laws, your insurance is invalid, and these guys are clearly in breach, as they haven't registered the cars. Hence their insurance is invalid, as many people involved in crashes with non Irish cars find out.

My insurance policy, covers me for 365 days a year in the UK and NI, and for 30 days at a time in EU countries (I've to renew the cover by calling them). But, if for example, my car was in a collision in the UK, and my car wasn't in compliance with UK laws, my insurance company would declare my cover invalid.

yes you are right, some countries have limitation to 30 days but some have what's called "green card option""on your policy which allows you to drive the car up 12 month outside your country of origin. Some companies give you this for free some charge your for it(just a bit extra)

alias no.9

You made a statement that was writen as if it were fact...

Gmodified wrote:

Well. i know that they are not going after LV cars

and followed it up with...

Gmodified wrote:

it’s irrelevant at this point where i take my information from

Until such time as you can prove it to be fact, the only thing that's irrelevant is your unsubstantiated claim.

Gmodified

Alias,
you are entitled to your own opinion based on available info .Equally, if you have no evidence that my statement is false u can take ride with Batman.

Never assume that people(in this case customs) do what you think they suppose to do.

now little Q&A

I got stopped twice by customs in period of 6 moths driving my lovely foreign reg car around town. Vehicle is registered to my mum( I am named driver) . Obviously, I am not a tourist .

So what will the customs do?

eth0_

I'm not a customs officer, but i'd imagine they should impound your car for you have already been stopped and are obviously not a tourist and are not paying Irish road tax...as is the law.

Are you going to tell us what Customs said to you?

Sleipnir

Exemptions from paying Vehicle Registration Tax
-Visitors to Ireland who have owned their vehicles abroad for more than 6 months and who will be resident here temporarily
-People who have owned their vehicles abroad for more than 6 months and who are moving permanently to Ireland
-People posted to Ireland as part of the diplomatic corps

That is, your car has been in Ireland for 6 months now so if you're caught again without having registered it in Ireland
"will make you liable to substantial penalties - including forfeiture of your vehicle and prosecution."

alias no.9

Gmodified wrote:

Alias,
you are entitled to your own opinion based on available info .Equally, if you have no evidence that my statement is false u can take ride with Batman.

Did I express an opinion? The burden of proof lies with somebody making an allegation. All i did was challenge your statement, one that was writen as a fact rather than an opinion and one that was not backed up by any evidence.

Gmodified wrote:

Never assume that people(in this case customs) do what you think they suppose to do.

I never have. I don't make assumptions. You're the one assuming that just because you can't see something happening(in this case customs stoping people with LV cars), that it isn't happening. I will gladly conceed that I don't know something if I haven't got some facts to back it up.

Gmodified wrote:

now little Q&A

I got stopped twice by customs in period of 6 moths driving my lovely foreign reg car around town. Vehicle is registered to my mum( I am named driver) . Obviously, I am not a tourist .

So what will the customs do?

I should hope they've impounded it.

Gmodified

alias no.9 wrote:

I should hope they've impounded it.

yeah you wish,

alias no.9 wrote:

I don't make assumptions. You're the one assuming that just because you can't see something happening(in this case customs stoping people with LV cars), that it isn't happening.......

and you know that they are stopping cars or just making assumptions?

Anyway
there is very little they can do ,even if car was stopped 3 times in 12months as technically car doesn't belong to the driver . It's grey area and lots of hard work for customs to prove it. Not mentioning that all actions will have to be communicated with the real owner.

much easier to targets are:

UK cars -mostly driven by Irish guys and doesn't matter if you have UK passport and playing tourist as more likely they know your home address

French.Spanish Italian cars register to driver of the car which happens to be working in local call center, speaks the lingo

So what i want to say is :
OK, it's not right thing to do it, but hate to see :
Irish guys driving UK cars
French/Italian cars etc screwed big time

Where LV and other funny reg plates cars get away with it. If this makes you feel better I got information from good official source and it's not Robin(and i do not have a copy of memo to show u). You are not expecting me to post the name of the person and his profession. Do you?

dcGT

Gmodified wrote:

just seen customs trying to catch all these people working in Xerox , IBM , Creative and driving foreign registration cars.

Pardon my ignorance here, but what exactly are the Customs officers looking for? 'VRT' and 'Motor tax' have been mentioned in this thread, do they collar people for both of these? If so, what exactly is the law on these matters?

Also, I presume customs have a list of foreign cars in Ireland, how long they are here etc.? Is this how they determine the offenders?

Finally, one of the exemptions for VRT as quoted above says:
"People who have owned their vehicles abroad for more than 6 months and who are moving permanently to Ireland"
Presumably, they must change to Irish plates at this stage and be liable for road tax yes?

DC.

alias no.9

Gmodified wrote:

yeah you wish,

I know of one person who has had their car impounded in the last week. I didn't have any sympathy for him either

Gmodified wrote:

and you know that they are stopping cars or just making assumptions?

I never suggested they were doing anything of the sort. I just asked you, how you know that they're not, something you claimed you know but also said the source of this information was irrelevant.

Gmodified wrote:

Anyway
there is very little they can do ,even if car was stopped 3 times in 12months as technically car doesn't belong to the driver . It's grey area and lots of hard work for customs to prove it. Not mentioning that all actions will have to be communicated with the real owner.

Don't count on it. A car is insured by its 'owner and keeper' and there are words to that effect on the insurance cert. All they have to prove is that the Insured person is not the owner and keeper of the car and thus invalidate the insurance and prosecute the driver for driving without insurance. A little bit of lateral thinking is all that's needed and maybe some day there'll be some lateral thinking in the civil service but I do really doubt it.

Gmodified wrote:

much easier to targets are:

UK cars -mostly driven by Irish guys and doesn't matter if you have UK passport and playing tourist as more likely they know your home address

French.Spanish Italian cars register to driver of the car which happens to be working in local call center, speaks the lingo

So what i want to say is :
OK, it's not right thing to do it, but hate to see :
Irish guys driving UK cars
French/Italian cars etc screwed big time

Everybody has the right to chose not to obey a law. Nobody has the right to feel agrieved about prosecution for a crime they were aware they were commiting and chose to commit.

Gmodified wrote:

Where LV and other funny reg plates cars get away with it. If this makes you feel better I got information from good official source and it's not Robin(and i do not have a copy of memo to show u). You are not expecting me to post the name of the person and his profession. Do you?

I don't trust annonomous second hand sources.

MrPudding

Gmodified wrote:

However, they become almost untraceable when it comes to road traffic offences and this is the problem.

you don't have too look far as UK reg car can speed through all gatso cameras over this side of the border and get away.

And lets not forget about the southern drivers that speed up North through the gatso cameras there. I think this is even worse as all the cameras there actually have film in them.



MrP

Gmodified

car is insured by its 'owner and keeper' and there are words to that effect on the insurance cert. All they have to prove is that the Insured person is not the owner and keeper of the car and thus invalidate the insurance and prosecute the driver for driving without insurance.


???
No insurance? What the hell you are talking about?:eek:

Car registered to your mum with you listed on policy, means you are insured. Not only owner could be insured to drive the vehicle.

dsab

In many countries you insure the car, and not the driver itself. For example if you insure a car in germany it can be driven by anyone, and will always be insured.

I just checked my old german policy (now driving an irish car), and it states that I can drive it anywhere within the EU for any period of time, as long as I pay the premium on time.

A bit different to the Irish system.

But yes, after some time every foreigner should register his car in Ireland. If you live in another cuntry, you have to play by the rules, if you like it or not...

ciasto

I'm not surprised people bring their cars over and drive for as long as they can. If you come from a country where you paid peanuts for insurance and its not even an issue. To a country like this where its top of the agenda for everybody and you cannot get a quote cause your foreign, you would do the same.

I have a few friends that work for an insurance company and they were told unofficially not to quote foreign people over the phone and send them to the branch. Since when is driving such a privilage, it forces people to brake the law.

Bogger77

ciasto wrote:

I have a few friends that work for an insurance company and they were told unofficially not to quote foreign people over the phone and send them to the branch. Since when is driving such a privilage, it forces people to brake the law.

Driving is a privilage, not a right! Breaking the rules, just cos you don't like them, is just the same attitude that causes people to run red lights, park in disabled zones (when they dont have blue badges), park in bus lanes, etc/

ciasto

Bogger77 wrote:

Driving is a privilage, not a right! Breaking the rules, just cos you don't like them, is just the same attitude that causes people to run red lights, park in disabled zones (when they dont have blue badges), park in bus lanes, etc/

What are you 90 yr?

I just said, that they brake the rules cause they don't have a choice not cause they don't like them! If they go out and buy a car here and try to insure it they will be told sorry we can't quote you cause you are not here long enough. Or we can't recognise you 30 yr no claim cause the weather is different in your country, or some other stupid reason.

And lets face it the people who enforce the law, brake it more often then the rest of us. If the world was a fair place then I agree with your statement.

MadsL

I have a few friends that work for an insurance company and they were told unofficially not to quote foreign people over the phone and send them to the branch. Since when is driving such a privilage, it forces people to brake the law.

Why does this not suprise me. It's time the EU gave the Irish insurance industry a very sharp kick up the arse. "Regulated by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority" me hole.... :mad: :mad: :mad:

shagman

I think these fine people should be applauded for their valiant efforts to screw our laughable road tax/ vrt/ licensing system. It is our duty to help them by searching and exploiting any loopholes we can , forcing the EU to bring the Irish government to task on VRT and refund all individuals forced to pay an illegal tax, maybe some clever hacker can come up with a list of vehicles owned by insurance company personnell and have this distributed free with every purchase of Nikes so that only their cars are broken into/ nicked / vandalised / keyed / torched.
And YES I am assuming that anyone who wears Nike is a car thief!

Vanarchy now!!

I paid €40 I think it was for a years F&T through the AA when living in New Zealand not that you're legally obliged to have insurance there.

The real problem is there is too FEW uninsured drivers on the roads, if we could bring it up to say 80-90% the feckers might start to pay attention.

Seth Brundle

shagman wrote:

The real problem is there is too FEW uninsured drivers on the roads, if we could bring it up to say 80-90% the feckers might start to pay attention.

Who says that this is a problem?