Court summons for wrong offense

Crea

In April I was stopped by a Garda for not having an up to date NCT cert. He asked for my licence which I didn't have on me so he told me to report to my local station and present proof of booking the NCT and licence.
I did this.
I now have received a summons for not having an insurance cert on my car. I did and this was never an issue or a question when stopped by the Garda.
What do I do?

Show up to court. Demonstrate that you had a valid policy at the time. Case will be thrown out.

Crea

Thanks.
It's very annoying though. A big waste of the courts and my time.

Skatedude

Crea wrote: »

Thanks.
It's very annoying though. A big waste of the courts and my time.

Which is why you are required to carry your license when driving, saves time and hassle, but some guards will still give you the 10 days to produce it. I assume you had an insurance disc, but since you had no license , the guard had no proof you were actually insured on that vehicle,

Crea

Crea wrote: »

Thanks.
It's very annoying though. A big waste of the courts and my time.

Annoying? You should be delighted. You we're about to be nailed to the wall for the nct, and you are getting off Scott free because the cop messed up.

cobhguy28

Crea wrote: »

I now have received a summons for not having an insurance cert on my car. I did and this was never an issue or a question when stopped by the Garda.
What do I do?

There are two different offences

Deleted User wrote: »

Show up to court. Demonstrate that you had a valid policy at the time. Case will be thrown out.

There are two different offences. One is Driving without insurance, One is not having a cert displayed. If a person is up for not having an insurance disk displayed, proving that he was insured at the time will not prove he had a disk displayed at the time while driving.

Crea

Skatedude wrote: »

Which is why you are required to carry your license when driving, saves time and hassle, but some guards will still give you the 10 days to produce it. I assume you had an insurance disc, but since you had no license , the guard had no proof you were actually insured on that vehicle,

The Garda didn't mention the insurance disk and the drivers name isn't on the disk anyhow so having the licence would have had no bearing on proving that I was insured.

Crea

Deleted User wrote: »

Annoying? You should be delighted. You we're about to be nailed to the wall for the nct, and you are getting off Scott free because the cop messed up.

I'm annoyed because I had followed all the Gardas instructions and now I've to go to court for a clerical error.

Crea

The wording of the summons states:

There was not in force an approved policy of insurance.

There is a second summons because I did not present a certificate of insurance to my local Garda station.

godtabh

Crea wrote: »

I'm annoyed because I had followed all the Gardas instructions and now I've to go to court for a clerical error.

Did you have an nct?

riemann

cobhguy28 wrote: »

There are two different offences

There are two different offences. One is Driving without insurance, One is not having a cert displayed. If a person is up for not having an insurance disk displayed, proving that he was insured at the time will not prove he had a disk displayed at the time while driving.

This post does not contain correct information.

Crea

godtabh wrote: »

Did you have an nct?

No. I told him this but it was just out of date. He told me to book it and present the proof to my local station which I did.

cobhguy28

riemann wrote: »

cobhguy28 wrote: »

There are two different offences

There are two different offences. One is Driving without insurance, One is not having a cert displayed. If a person is up for not having an insurance disk displayed, proving that he was insured at the time will not prove he had a disk displayed at the time while driving.

This post does not contain correct information.

Which Part?

cobhguy28

riemann wrote: »

cobhguy28 wrote: »

There are two different offences

There are two different offences. One is Driving without insurance, One is not having a cert displayed. If a person is up for not having an insurance disk displayed, proving that he was insured at the time will not prove he had a disk displayed at the time while driving.

This post does not contain correct information.

Offence 1 Failure by driver to have insurance disc fixed and displayed on windscreen of vehicle is a fixed charge 
Offence 2 Driving without insurance.
So what is not correct
So even if you prove you have insurance and the Offence of driving without insurance is dropped you can still be liable to a fine for "Failure by driver to have insurance disc fixed and displayed on windscreen of vehicle"

Crea

The thing is I did have an insurance disk displayed. It wasnt even brought up in the discussion. The worry i have is how i prove this?
The Garda obviously wrote down "No insurance" instead of "No NCT".

Crea

Crea wrote: »

I'm annoyed because I had followed all the Gardas instructions and now I've to go to court for a clerical error.

You have to go to court to get it thrown out. If there hadn't been a clerical error you faced up to $2500 fine, 3 months in prison & 5 penalty points for not having a valid NCT. Count your blessings.

Crea

Deleted User wrote: »

You have to go to court to get it thrown out. If there hadn't been a clerical error you faced up to $2500 fine, 3 months in prison & 5 penalty points for not having a valid NCT. Count your blessings.

The Garda on the day was perfectly sound. NCT was out if date a few weeks so just asked for proof of booking at my local station which I gave. So the matter should have ended there.

Because if a clerical error I have to go to court, prove that I did have insurance at the time, prove it was a clerical error and prove that I displayed an insurance disk. Proving the last 2 may be tricky so I'm not counting my blessings at all.

honda boi

[Deleted User] wrote: »

You have to go to court to get it thrown out. If there hadn't been a clerical error you faced up to $2500 fine, 3 months in prison & 5 penalty points for not having a valid NCT. Count your blessings.

Has anyone been charged that harshly for no Nct?
You see people with plenty of previous convictions walking out Willy nilly.

honda boi

honda boi wrote: »

Has anyone been charged that harshly for no Nct?
You see people with plenty of previous convictions walking out Willy nilly.

If it goes before the judge, they have the power to impose those penalties. Your mileage may vary. The OP can't or won't recognise that he got caught breaking the law and is bloody lucky with the result. NCT was out - a few weeks or a few years has no relevance. Annoyance is a pretty silly reaction to the way this played out. Snowflake syndrome

SBS

Pls discuss the issues without preaching

4ensic15

Deleted User wrote: »

If it goes before the judge, they have the power to impose those penalties. Your mileage may vary. The OP can't or won't recognise that he got caught breaking the law and is bloody lucky with the result. NCT was out - a few weeks or a few years has no relevance. Annoyance is a pretty silly reaction to the way this played out. Snowflake syndrome

If the NCT has been done by the time it gets to court, there is a good chance the summons will be withdrawn or the judge will do a poor box. It is 5 penalty points if convicted. Even if there is a conviction the tariff will vary. If the person turns up in court with the same car, still with no NCT most courts take a dim view.

realitykeeper

A few years ago when I used to drive, a guard stopped me and I reckon he needed to reach his quota. He checked the tax, insurance, NCT, tires, lights, asked for my licence, did a breathalyzer test and all was in order. I recommend going car free if possible. It is good for the pocket, the health and the environment.

Crea

4ensic15 wrote: »

If the NCT has been done by the time it gets to court, there is a good chance the summons will be withdrawn or the judge will do a poor box. It is 5 penalty points if convicted. Even if there is a conviction the tariff will vary. If the person turns up in court with the same car, still with no NCT most courts take a dim view.

The summons has nothing to do with the NCT though. It's for not having insurance which I did at the time and I had the insurance disk displayed.
SBS- I got the NCT sorted straight away and I brought the proof to the station like I was asked to. It's not snowflake syndrome to be annoyed that I did everything the Garda said but still get brought to court because of a clerical error.

Crea

realitykeeper wrote: »

A few years ago when I used to drive, a guard stopped me and I reckon he needed to reach his quota. He checked the tax, insurance, NCT, tires, lights, asked for my licence, did a breathalyzer test and all was in order. I recommend going car free if possible. It is good for the pocket, the health and the environment.

I a country girl so not an option to go car free I'm afraid. I've also 3 kids to shuttle around.
The Garda I got was sound tbh. My NCT was out so being pulled over was fair enough. Getting a summons about the insurance was a bit of a shock though.

4ensic15

Crea wrote: »

I a country girl so not an option to go car free I'm afraid. I've also 3 kids to shuttle around.
The Garda I got was sound tbh. My NCT was out so being pulled over was fair enough. Getting a summons about the insurance was a bit of a shock though.

Let that be a lesson to you. It is better to have the window properly dressed at all times. When you have an encounter with the Garda, it will always go better for you.

Mervyn Skidmore

Do you have a certificate of insurance that shows you were insured at the time? A disk does not prove insurance. If you do, bring the insurance cert and disks into the garda now and if all is in order they may agree to withdraw the summonses without you having to attend court.

4ensic15

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

Do you have a certificate of insurance that shows you were insured at the time? A disk does not prove insurance. If you do, bring the insurance cert and disks into the garda now and if all is in order they may agree to withdraw the summonses without you having to attend court.

Once there is a summons issued it is unwise not to go to court, even if the garda says they will withdraw the summons. Things can go wrong.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

If it goes before the judge, they have the power to impose those penalties. Your mileage may vary. The OP can't or won't recognise that he got caught breaking the law and is bloody lucky with the result. NCT was out - a few weeks or a few years has no relevance. Annoyance is a pretty silly reaction to the way this played out. Snowflake syndrome

SBS

Pls discuss the issues without preaching

@nuac Please don't edit my posts. If you have a problem with them, make your own post or PM me.

I'm not preaching. I discussed the issue with the OP, gave advice and explained why I thought annoyance was an inappropriate reaction. You're out of line, IMO. Ban away...

SBS
The convention here is to avoid disputes in-thread with a forum mod..

You are welcome to refer your complaint to the other mods in Legal Discussion.

Edgware

I would suggest contacting the Superintentendent of the station, provide a photocopy of the summons and your insurance cert and explain what happened.
He/she can then ask the Garda for a report on the matter and recommend if correct to have the summons withdrawn.
This may be a better approach