Penalty points removed...any ideas?

Flinty

My Dad got 2 penalty points on Newtown Park avenue about 18 months ago. I presume it was a gatso van, as it came in the post. Anyway, last week he got a letter from Dun Laoghaire county council with a cheque for €80 and a note saying his points are to be removed. Quote "...due to a legal issue, pertaining to Dun laoghaire Rathdown county council bye laws at the time of the offence, it has been decided to refund the money paid by you on the above notice". also goes on to say they will be removing the points.

Anyone any ideas what is going on here. I got points in the post around the same time in Stillorgan. Would it just be someone else challenging the points on Newtown park ave??

Funkstard

Isn't this the thing where the gardaí kept no physical evidence of the speed they caught him doing? One fellow managed to get his overturned for them not having evidence, and as a result alot of them are being refunded.

is_that_so

More likely to be where a council sets "special speed limits", although much of that stuff is in the 2004 Road Traffic Act. The refund could mean that the actual speed limit being enforced was wrong therefore all fines would be invalid in court. There are all sorts of rules about those bye laws, they can't just make them up. If for example there were road works in the area and someone stuck up a sign without council permission which reduced the speed limit, the speed would limit revert to the original, so only speeding offences exceeding the original limit would be valid.

Flinty

yeah, is that so, that sounds like a plausable reason alright.

beller b

Its nice to hear all the same..
On a different point (no pun intended) Isn't there some thing where if you get 2 points & don't recieve any further points within the following 12 months , then they are removed after the year..If you recieve further points within the 12 months you are stuck with them for 3 years..Any one know if this is true & if so are the points removed automatically?

Seth Brundle

Points stay with you for three years after you recieve them. If you accumulate 12 points within three years then you are in trouble! Points are not removed after 12 months if you behave yourself!

Victor

DLR screwed up when they revised some speed limits. The signs went up before they were legally enforceable.

delly

I heard about that 12 month thing before from someone. They could have been talking balls+ox tho'.

Hotblack Desiato

delly wrote:

I heard about that 12 month thing before from someone.

Is 'someone' the same guy who goes around the pubs of Ireland telling people they should always indicate right whenever they enter a roundabout even if not turning right, that hogging the right-hand lane is fine if you are driving at whatever speed you feel is fast enough, that the NCT is a racket, driving testers have a fail quota, that a car licence covers you to ride a 125cc motorcycle, and all the other 'beauts' I've heard? Cause 'somebody' is spreading a tremendous amount of bad info about motoring in Ireland

Our man in Havana

ninja900 wrote:

that the NCT is a racket

Yes it is one of the biggest rackets in Ireland.

cotillion

Flinty wrote:

"...due to a legal issue, pertaining to Dun laoghaire Rathdown county council bye laws at the time of the offence, it has been decided to refund the money paid by you on the above notice". also goes on to say they will be removing the points.

Surely your Dad would be entitled to claim for the extra money he would have paid on his insurance for the last 18 months if he shouldn't have had the points in the first place?

Ann Elk

As far as i know, one of the main problems with regards to the issuing of points was that under EU legilation, you're entitled to get written proof in the form of a printout stating the speed that you were travelling at - it's to stop arbitrary convictions. Most of the Garda speed detection equipment was not inline with this and couldn't produce such evidence. A Barrister challenged points in relation to a client on this point and the case was thrown out of court so, in the interests of keeping legal costs down, the various corprations began rescinding points - good old irish efficiency!