Garda gives parking fine at 2am

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 10:12am #1

Morning all, have a quick story about something that happened last night in town and want peoples views on it.

My friend was playing a gig in town last night, looks after all the gear and stuff. Basically the band finished up around 2am, so he went up to get his van and came back to find that there was a pile up of taxis blocking where he would usually park. He saw his friend waiting with the gear and said he'd throw the van up on the footpath there, half on double yellows and half on a disabled spot.(opposite geoffs) He didnt leave the van idle, stood there the whole time just opened the back door to put the stuff in.

Next thing a guard hops out of a paddy wagon and comes stormin over all high and mighty sayin, "which one of ye is disabled lads?" so my friend said listen I'm only after pullin in coz all the taxis are blocking where I normally park. It's too risky to park any further away cos drunk people think people carrying gear are hilarious and want to jump up on it, possibly leading to an accident(and from bad experiences in the past) "Not my problem" he says. So he begged him to have some sort of reasoning but he had none of it. €80 fine. He called up to the station straight away lookin to speak with a higher authority but there was no-one there. Just another guard who said he'd have a word but obviously wont. The two guards in the paddy wagon were laughin their heads off too. So frustating.

I know he was breaking the law and in the wrong but it just seems so petty and unneccessary. You'd think they would have given him a chance to move off. And I know they move every few mins but why arent all the taxis that are parked on double yellows not penalised?

Mossy Monk · 10-10-2009 10:18am

He parked illegally. The rules don't change when it is night time.

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 10:19am

I know yeah, it just sucks.

Maybe this would be better in the ranting forum!

DarkJager · 10-10-2009 10:26am

Mossy Monk wrote: »

He parked illegally. The rules don't change when it is night time.

No they shouldn't change, but common sense should be used especially when there's expensive equipment and drunk people in the same place.

Mossy Monk · 10-10-2009 10:34am

DarkJager wrote: »

No they shouldn't change, but common sense should be used especially when there's expensive equipment and drunk people in the same place.

Bend the rules? What's the point in having them in that case.

Are you one of the drivers that seems to think "a shur it will only be for 5 minutes" as you abandon your car with the lights flashing is acceptable?

DarkJager · 10-10-2009 10:40am

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Bend the rules? What's the point in having them in that case.

Are you one of the drivers that seems to think "a shur it will only be for 5 minutes" as you abandon your car with the lights flashing is acceptable?

No I never do that, I detest that actually. But look at the situation logically:

2pm in the day: Car parked in disabled spot for no good reason - absolutely bring the hammer down.

2am in the morning: Possibly 1K plus of equipment to be moved, with the threat of intoxicated people trying to steal/damage it - perfectly acceptable to use the spot as its only loading up for a few minutes at most and the car is not unattended.

MrJetlag · 10-10-2009 10:46am

For future reference - get your friend to walk with a limp and pretend he has cerebral palsy.
Speaking like Christy brown should do the trick and get rid of old bill also

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 10:52am

DarkJager wrote: »

No I never do that, I detest that actually. But look at the situation logically:

2pm in the day: Car parked in disabled spot for no good reason - absolutely bring the hammer down.

2am in the morning: Possibly 1K plus of equipment to be moved, with the threat of intoxicated people trying to steal/damage it - perfectly acceptable to use the spot as its only loading up for a few minutes at most and the car is not unattended.

more than 1k i would imagine with 2 guitars, bass, drum kit, speakers, stands, mics etc.. thanks for seeing it from our side! I hate and would never park in a disabled or on yellow lines but at 2am theres tonnes of cars pulling in left right and centre in town. from taxis to people getting lifts, its the usual chaos. it seems someone just wanted an easy booking.

seandepaul · 10-10-2009 11:00am

I think its completely understandable what you did. You just know some drunken fool would "fall" over your equipment and try and claim you were in the wrong or worse still try rob it.

Are the taxis not parked illegally outside of the Kazbar? Not sure just wondering?

Sure god forbid the cops do any real work. Whilst they were being completely unreasonable there was probably someone getting there head kicked in down the road. But they couldn't be doing real work when there's money to be made!!!

DarkJager · 10-10-2009 11:02am

vixenbees wrote: »

more than 1k i would imagine with 2 guitars, bass, drum kit, speakers, stands, mics etc.. thanks for seeing it from our side! I hate and would never park in a disabled or on yellow lines but at 2am theres tonnes of cars pulling in left right and centre in town. from taxis to people getting lifts, its the usual chaos. it seems someone just wanted an easy booking.

I know exactly how you see it, I have to move my DJ equipment (well over 1k+) after gigs and there is no way in hell I would risk not having the car outside the venue. Are the gardai going to replace my gear if it gets wrecked by some drunk clown? I think not.

uberwolf · 10-10-2009 11:06am

FFS, that's completely unreasonable. Van was attended, so had the space been needed it was available.

triple-M · 10-10-2009 11:07am

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Bend the rules? What's the point in having them in that case.

Are you one of the drivers that seems to think "a shur it will only be for 5 minutes" as you abandon your car with the lights flashing is acceptable?

discretion can be used,particularly when its late at night and they are not getting in any ones way,cop was obviously on a bit of a power buzz,or had a bit of a chip on his shoulder,because surely if they were parking on the footpath at the venue as opposed to down the road to avoid confronting drunken people,then the cops would of been better off keeping an eye on the drunks and not ticketing people unnecessarily

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 11:08am

See I dunno if the taxis are considered parked vehicles since at that time of night they move on every few mins. But yeah when the taxis are backed up they sit on the yellow lines outside the kazbar, thats where he'd usually pull up.

JohnC. · 10-10-2009 11:11am

It's not their business what equipment you are moving (as long as it isn't illegal). It is their business if you are parked on a footpath, parked on double yellows or parked in a disabled spot. Or all three.

south · 10-10-2009 11:26am

Tell him not to pay the fine, wait for the summons to come, go to court tell the judge what happened he’ll most likely throw it out and get onto the guard for wasting public money for bringing the case to court. Maybe before that he should call up to the station again and ask for the guard who issued the fine and see if he’ll change his mind, maybe then ask for his sergeant and explain to him what happened. If he gets nowhere tell them he's going to go to court and take his chances infront of a judge

rusty999 · 10-10-2009 11:41am

vixenbees wrote: »

Morning all, have a quick story about something that happened last night in town and want peoples views on it.

My friend was playing a gig in town last night, looks after all the gear and stuff. Basically the band finished up around 2am, so he went up to get his van and came back to find that there was a pile up of taxis blocking where he would usually park. He saw his friend waiting with the gear and said he'd throw the van up on the footpath there, half on double yellows and half on a disabled spot.(opposite geoffs) He didnt leave the van idle, stood there the whole time just opened the back door to put the stuff in.

Next thing a guard hops out of a paddy wagon and comes stormin over all high and mighty sayin, "which one of ye is disabled lads?" so my friend said listen I'm only after pullin in coz all the taxis are blocking where I normally park. It's too risky to park any further away cos drunk people think people carrying gear are hilarious and want to jump up on it, possibly leading to an accident(and from bad experiences in the past) "Not my problem" he says. So he begged him to have some sort of reasoning but he had none of it. €80 fine. He called up to the station straight away lookin to speak with a higher authority but there was no-one there. Just another guard who said he'd have a word but obviously wont. The two guards in the paddy wagon were laughin their heads off too. So frustating.

I know he was breaking the law and in the wrong but it just seems so petty and unneccessary. You'd think they would have given him a chance to move off. And I know they move every few mins but why arent all the taxis that are parked on double yellows not penalised?

This is so typical of some particular attitudes I myself notice in some Irish garda in this country. Its a power trip thing in my opinion!! I lived in london for many years and rarely seen the same attitude as some of these fellows have here. I have seen so many different instances where a little COMMON SENSE would come in handy but not all of them have the luxury of being born with it. I had the same in Galway a while ago and stood my ground regarding a very similar situation--taxis bumper to bumper a mile back from their rank and blocking the entrance to my gig--I have a large rig to unload- and there was no way I was going to be able to carry it any other way than park outside the venue. I was causing no obstruction that was any different to the taxis and along comes Sergeant Dick with a stinking attitude. If I was causing an obstruction then i would have moved immediately but I was not in the mood to be talked down to and after reasoning with him briefly he allowed me 5 mins. I politely told him it might be 10 as i have a mountain of stuff and he went off. Now, because he was REASONABLY polite about it i made the effort and asked the bouncers to help out and sure enough i was back in the chaos of trying to find a parking spot about 5-7 mins later and no harm done to anyone.
I also notice that there is a bad attitude from young guards here ,to some of our young people and its actually having a detrimental effect instead of maybe encouraging them to be law abiding citizens. I have 2 sons aged 19 and 25 and there was often times when the attitude of certain guards only served to victimize and alienate rather than the opposite. Thankfully they were able to ignore these occasions and are better men for that but at the end of the day if a person is being treated disrespectfully then they might very well show the same disrespect back to whoever is showing that disrespect. On that note, one of my sons was driving a few weeks ago and his tax was 11 days out of date when he was stopped. And low and behold he received a letter in the post yesterday for a 60 euro fine. Would one not think that that guard would use a little discretion and warn him at least and give him a day or two to get his tax sorted. He was polite to the guard and explained that he had just started college and had forgotten to tax it what with all the starting college thing ,but would have it the next day but then this arrives. No common sense in my opinion!!!
Rusty

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 11:57am

south wrote: »

Tell him not to pay the fine, wait for the summons to come, go to court tell the judge what happened he’ll most likely throw it out and get onto the guard for wasting public money for bringing the case to court. Maybe before that he should call up to the station again and ask for the guard who issued the fine and see if he’ll change his mind, maybe then ask for his sergeant and explain to him what happened. If he gets nowhere tell them he's going to go to court and take his chances infront of a judge

Good idea. Do you need a solicitor for this kind of stuff?

JohnC. · 10-10-2009 11:57am

Give him a day or two to get his tax sorted? Sounds like he already had 11 days + however many days since the renewal notice arrived. It only takes 5 minutes to do it online. Was he really that busy? It is one of the responsibilities that comes with owning a car.

south · 10-10-2009 12:00pm

vixenbees wrote: »

Good idea. Do you need a solicitor for this kind of stuff?

it would help alright but no i don't think so

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 12:16pm

Rusty, I think your son was very unlucky about the tax. I bought a car a few months ago, it came with no disk. I had serious trouble getting the garage to put the logbook in my name so I could get it taxed, went on for about 2 months and I swear I must've been stopped at at least 4 checkpoints during that 2 month period, (I remember thinking how typical when you have everything you'd never get stopped) and none of the guards said a word to me. I explained I had just bought the car and was waiting on the garage and they said no problem, it was mad but I was really glad of their understanding since it was a genuine problem.

mikemac · 10-10-2009 12:19pm

vixenbees wrote: »

Good idea. Do you need a solicitor for this kind of stuff?

Getting a solicitor is going to cost you more then the parking fine is worth.
I'm not saying you should just pay the fine but is it realy worth it?

dannydiamond · 10-10-2009 12:25pm

south wrote: »

Tell him not to pay the fine, wait for the summons to come, go to court

Good idea! Why not get into more sh1t as he's at it!:rolleyes:

Your mate just got unlucky, he wasn't too out of order but the guards weren't either,tell him to pay the fine and forget about it.

Going to court with this is be the most retarded advice i've seen on this forum.

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 12:28pm

dannydiamond wrote: »

Good idea! Why not get into more sh1t as he's at it!:rolleyes:

Your mate just got unlucky, he wasn't too out of order but the guards weren't either,tell him to pay the fine and forget about it.

Going to court with this is be the most retarded advice i've seen on this forum.

I've heard of people who go to court and talk themselves out of all sorts so you never know.

dannydiamond · 10-10-2009 12:33pm

vixenbees wrote: »

I've heard of people who go to court and talk themselves out of all sorts so you never know.

No judge will throw this out,it's black and white. As petty as it is he broke the law and he has to take his medicine.
If anything,a judge will increase the fine and be pissed at your mate wasting his time not the guards.

south · 10-10-2009 12:40pm

dannydiamond wrote: »

Good idea! Why not get into more sh1t as he's at it!:rolleyes:

Your mate just got unlucky, he wasn't too out of order but the guards weren't either,tell him to pay the fine and forget about it.

Going to court with this is be the most retarded advice i've seen on this forum.

take it anyway you want lad but i didn't give it to you. The worse that would happen is the judge enforcing the fine of €80. if you look at my first post i told him to go to the station first and try sort it out if not then it's another option.

rusty999 · 10-10-2009 1:00pm

Kahless wrote: »

Give him a day or two to get his tax sorted? Sounds like he already had 11 days + however many days since the renewal notice arrived. It only takes 5 minutes to do it online. Was he really that busy? It is one of the responsibilities that comes with owning a car.

Yes I know but theres also the fact that a few of his friends were in the same position a few times and were lucky enough to meet a guard who was able to exercise a bit of common sense and leniency and a warning can sometimes be better than issuing fines--its not as if he is a criminal prowling the highways and byways and one would often wonder where the guards are when criminals are out attacking the elderly and robbing around the country at night. Its very easy to fire out a few fixed penalties and summons for paltry offenses when the real crimes go unpunished.
As I said it was his first time and I always thought there was an unwritten rule in days gone by that you got 8-10 days to tax your car after it expired.
So his was 11 days out of date

wow!!! Bring in the ERU !!!

rusty999 · 10-10-2009 1:19pm

triple-M wrote: »

discretion can be used,particularly when its late at night and they are not getting in any ones way,cop was obviously on a bit of a power buzz,or had a bit of a chip on his shoulder,because surely if they were parking on the footpath at the venue as opposed to down the road to avoid confronting drunken people,then the cops would of been better off keeping an eye on the drunks and not ticketing people unnecessarily

Very well Said!! A power buzz indeed!!!

I recently witnessed 8 of them making a very feeble attempt to remove a band of drunken travellers who had wrecked a pub and were refusing to leave. The guards were like lambs compared to how this incident would be handled in Britain or any other European country and being an ex publican I have had first hand experience of this fact. They were subjected to insults and language that you would have to hear yourself to believe it and all they done was put on false smiles and allow about 20 breaches of the peace take place in front of their eyes without lifting a finger. I witnessed a guard going back into the premises to organize takeaways of drink for these drunken louts because that was the only way they would agree to leave town. Talk about holding a town to ransom --the wild west springs to mind!! The area was left like a battlefield with rubbish and sh..t thrown out of vans right in front of the cops noses. As I said its very easy to give easy fixed penalties to young drivers and summons for petty offences and clog up the court system with half the offenses being thrown out anyway because judges nowadays can see through whats going on. But when SOME of these brave boys are faced with bully boy tactics from our travelling cousins or real criminals they are not the big men they might be when having a bad attitude towards some young fella who is struggling to get himself through college and keep a car on the road.
They need to wise up in Templemore and realize that their training is turning some of these fellas into thugs. Not all--but definately some need an attitude transplant!! Thats my opinion!!

rusty999 · 10-10-2009 1:25pm

vixenbees wrote: »

Rusty, I think your son was very unlucky about the tax. I bought a car a few months ago, it came with no disk. I had serious trouble getting the garage to put the logbook in my name so I could get it taxed, went on for about 2 months and I swear I must've been stopped at at least 4 checkpoints during that 2 month period, (I remember thinking how typical when you have everything you'd never get stopped) and none of the guards said a word to me. I explained I had just bought the car and was waiting on the garage and they said no problem, it was mad but I was really glad of their understanding since it was a genuine problem.

I agree Vixenbees--I always heard there was a sort of unwritten law that you got 10 days at least-- I was often stopped myself and a polite warning was always enough to get me sorting out any problem whether it was tax or NCT or whatever. And anyway you had to pay from the end of the last month anyway when renewing your tax so there was no loss to the revenue.
Its petty and childish of the guard in question in my opinion and he must really need a few brownie points..

kryogen · 10-10-2009 1:47pm

vixenbees wrote: »

Good idea. Do you need a solicitor for this kind of stuff?

just pay the fine, its irritating yes, but you dont have a case from a legal point of view and its not worth the hassle. put it down to experience and move on

dannydiamond wrote: »

Good idea! Why not get into more sh1t as he's at it!:rolleyes:

Your mate just got unlucky, he wasn't too out of order but the guards weren't either,tell him to pay the fine and forget about it.

This ^^^^^^^^^^

vixenbees wrote: »

I've heard of people who go to court and talk themselves out of all sorts so you never know.

believe me, your friend was parked illegally, they will not throw this out, the fine will possibly go up for wasting the courts time

it really isnt worth it, just take it on the chin and move on.

i sympathise with your friend, dont get me wrong, but you guys are on a loser if you try fight this, maybe try talk to the Garda in question again and appeal to his better nature but if it comes to it then pay the fine

vixenbees · 10-10-2009 2:11pm

Yeah thats what he'll probably do.hadn't even thought about not paying and letting it go to court until it was mentioned here.

I was only asking whats involved, not saying he'd definately not pay it.

rusty999 · 10-10-2009 2:40pm

vixenbees wrote: »

Yeah thats what he'll probably do.hadn't even thought about not paying and letting it go to court until it was mentioned here.

I was only asking whats involved, not saying he'd definately not pay it.

Well in my humble opinion this could go either way,
My wife was a witness in court the other day and several other cases came up first and she was telling me about a case where the guy stood up himself and gave the evidence. It appears he was lost and in a line of traffic at a roadworks detour in the west of Ireland, he got out his mobile phone and rang a friend to get the correct address. The call was finished before the cars moved off and he had put down the phone but lo and behold a few days later received a summons out of the blue and it appeared a garda had spotted him and taken his registration. He stood up in court himself--the guards dont like that by the way-and explained it to the judge and he threw it out.
The Irish people have taken it lying down for too long and are only now learning to stand up for themselves. Its been the same with overcharging and ripped off here in Ireland for years
Stand up and be counted is the message!!!!

Garda gives parking fine at 2am

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