Parking ticket in the form of a business card

Morlar

Dont know if this has been posted before - but has anyone ever been given a parking ticket in the form of a An Garda Siochana Business Card ? I had one on my windscreen the other day that said that there would be a ticket in the post - does anyone know if this is a legal way for them to do it ?

Seth Brundle

Didn't know that the gardai even had business cards!
Were you parked illegally in a public place?

KTRIC

I've gotten business cards from Gardai in the past. They rarely hand them out to be honest, you really have to be on the right side of the law to get one from them.

Maybe the Garda in question was out of tickets and thought he'd do the honourable thing and let you know you're getting a ticket .

Morlar

KTRIC wrote:

I've gotten business cards from Gardai in the past. They rarely hand them out to be honest, you really have to be on the right side of the law to get one from them.

Maybe the Garda in question was out of tickets and thought he'd do the honourable thing and let you know you're getting a ticket .

Fair enough for letting me know - I wasnt on yellow lines though. I parked just before the yellow lines began. If I had been on the road (probably legal) it would have been a hazzard (in my estimation) so I figured I would put it mostly on the path. I am thinking that they were out of tickets too and its going to be arriving in the post. Thanks for replying to that.

Wishbone Ash

kbannon wrote:

Didn't know that the gardai even had business cards!

They usually use them when investigating crime. The officer writes his name and rank and contact number on the card and gives it to a witness or a potential witness in case they later recall something that may be of interest.

(Some cards have the station details on them already and just require the Garda's name).

Wishbone Ash

Morlar wrote:

so I figured I would put it mostly on the path.

Parking all or any part of a vehicle on a footpath is illegal.

testicle

Wishbone Ash wrote:

They usually use them when investigating crime. The officer writes his name and rank and contact number on the card and gives it to a witness or a potential witness in case they later recall something that may be of interest.

(Some cards have the station details on them already and just require the Garda's name).

And some more again, have the Garda's full details on it.

Spitfire666

they dont need to tell you at all if you are getting a fine. you dont get any receipt anymore so you could park illegaly and then go home to find a fine in the post a few weeks later. the cards are also used when a guard calls to your house for another guard to get you to contact him and your not in, for example to find out if your still the owner of a said car.

Our man in Havana

I used to be a traffic warden so heres my take on it,

For parking offences they must serve the notice (which must be in a prescribed form) on the vehicle by attaching it securely or by handing it to the driver at the time of the offence. I don't think that they can issue parking tickets by post. TW's certainly cannot. If I ran out of tickets then it was tough, you went back to the office and got more or if it was the weekend you went home early.

The only thing I can think of is that they are going to try and charge you with dangerous parking (court appearance) and if so the RO can expect a knock on the door asking who was driving at the time.

Plenty of scope here to fight it. Prehaps its just a fake used by local busybodies to wind you up?

mcguiver

Perfectly legal I'm afraid.
Gardai are now phasing out the ticket books in most areas and using hand held/pda type machine for print outs. Most non-traffic Gardai don't carry them (they're bulky), so they can proceed by summons/ticket instead. It's unusual to use the business card, but I suppose it's better to be informed than get the bad news in the post weeks later.

Our man in Havana

That might be ok for intercept offences where the driver is spoken to. But I doubt it's legal for notice to owner offences.

digweed

the notice goes to the registered owner, similar to the speeding tickets from the gatso vans. registered owner is then obliged to say who was driving at the time. nothing is put on the screen anymore.