Summonses generated by the Garda computer system have been found to be flawed, preventing a conviction in two speeding cases yesterday, writes David Labanyi
The problem is likely to result in gardaí having to manually amend summonses produced by Pulse until the Garda computer system can be reprogrammed.
The issue came to light yesterday in Dunmore District Court in Co Galway, where two prosecutions against motorists for speeding were dismissed by Judge Geoffrey Browne.
Judge Browne said the problem was not the fault of the prosecuting gardaí but an issue that had to be dealt with at national level.
In the first case defence solicitor, Mr Evan O'Dwyer, told the court that the summons lacked sufficient clarity to allow the judge to record a conviction. In particular, there was no reference to Section 15 of the Road Traffic Act 2004.
Judge Browne absolved the arresting Garda Michelle B Hallinan and the prosecuting Superintendent John McMahon from responsibility, and said he had to rely on the summons before him and that gardaí were tied by what they had to work with in the Pulse system.
Following further legal argument the case against Keith Murphy, from Castlebar Co Mayo, who was accused of speeding on February 2nd, was dismissed.
In the second speeding case before Dunmore District Court later in the day, the Judge also dismissed it after the State offered no evidence.
After the decisions, Mr O'Dwyer said: "I raised the issue as to whether the summons was sufficiently accurate. It was alleged the plaintiff was speeding but in order to allege it you have to allege the offence and under what provisions in law the offences occurred."
The problem is that the summons makes no reference to Section 15 of the Road Traffic Act 2004, which came into force on January 20th this year. It only concerns summonses for alleged speeding offences arising from hand-held speed detectors, under which the majority of speeding prosecutions are taken.
"The only solution to the problem is that all gardaí will have to print out their summonses and start amending them by hand," Mr O'Dwyer said. "In the long term the Pulse system will have to be reprogrammed so that the information on the summonses is correct."
Section 15 was introduced to close a loophole in the Road Traffic Act to allow an unrecorded evidence of speed to be used in a prosecution.
Prior to this amendment, motorists charged with speeding on the basis of a speed-gun could successfully oppose the prosecution on the basis that the device produced no permanent record of the speed, in breach of the requirements of the Road Traffic Act 2002.
According to Mr O'Dwyer, the problem with the summonses is a continuation of the same overall weakness in road traffic law which arose in relation to Section 15.
"It is the next evolution of the same problem. And the problem is the law is still not in sync with what the gardaí are operating on the side of the road." Mr O'Dwyer said this was the first time that he was aware the courts had had to adjudicate on the issue.
A Garda spokesman said that no similar cases of this type had come to their attention and the specifics of the cases in Dunmore would have to be examined in detail.