More than 170 vehicles seized due to unpaid M50 tolls

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has seized more than 170 vehicles to date for failure to pay the M50 toll - 65 of which were seized in 2016.

Information released about toll evasion on Dublin’s M50 shows a minority of serial evaders trying to skip charges are accumulating significant penalties.

One driver was prosecuted and had to make a payment of over €16,000 after failing to pay for more than 1,200 trips on the barrier-free toll. The culprit also had their vehicle seized on foot of a civil judgement.

In another case in 2016, a repeat offender had to pay district court claim notice for €12,167.

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In a separate case, another driver had to clear a civil debt registered against them in order to be able to obtain a loan from a financial institution.

Earlier this year, a 2007 registered Skoda was seized and the defendant had to pay more than €15,000, having initially refused to engage and deal with the matter. The defendant thought that by “refusing service” of legal proceedings they would avoid prosecution, but following a sub-service application through the courts, the legal proceedings were duly served and a decree was sent to the sheriff.

According to the roads authority, other cases included:

- A 2008 BMW X5 jeep was seized in Castleknock, Dublin area on foot of a decree obtained in the courts for more than €12,000 which the defendant paid in full to settle the matter.

- A 142 Nissan Juke was seized in Saggart Co Dublin area on foot of a decree obtained for more than €13,000 which was paid in full to settle the matter.

- A 2009 Mercedes Benz was seized in Tallaght area on foot of a decree obtained in the courts for more than €13,000 . The culprit agreed a settlement with the sheriff's office for the decree and also paid TII for other outstanding tolls and penalties owed.

- A 2012 Audi A6 was seized in the Dublin 16 area on foot of a decree obtained in the courts for more than €5,000. The defendant paid the decree in full along with the sheriff’s costs.

A spokesman for the toll operator said while the authority was pleased the overall compliance rate which has marginally improved in the past couple of years to over 97 per cent, “there still remains a very small minority of motorists who use the toll road on a regular basis - in some cases three to four times a day - without paying”.

“These people are needlessly ending up in court and putting themselves at risk of incurring a criminal conviction, or having the debt registered against them as well as having their vehicle seized by the sheriff.”

“We are urging these people to contact eFlow in order to resolve their case before it gets to court,” he said.