Speeding charge dropped after court hears five people had same name as accused

John Boyce says 22 families share his surname in single Donegal townland

A video camera mounted in a Garda Traffic vehicle. Photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times

A man had a speeding charge against him dropped after telling a judge that there are 22 families in the same Co Donegal townland as him with the same surname.

The man, John Boyce, appeared at Letterkenny District Court in Co Donegal after being detected by a Go Safe speed camera van.

The court was told that Mr Boyce was registered doing 71km/h in a 60km/h zone on April 13th last at Maghernanan, Letterkenny.

However the accused man, from Upper Tullagh, Carrigart, said he had never received a summons to pay the fine.

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The first he heard abut the court case was when gardaí came calling to his house, the man said.

He told Judge Alan Mitchell there was an issue with letters sometimes getting mixed up in the area as there were 22 families with the same surname as him living in the same townland.

To make matters even more complicated, up to five different people also had the same first name as him .

Judge Mitchell said he was left with no option but to struck out the charge.

The case was amongst a number of speeding summonses which were struck out at the court after people complained that they did not receive letters about the fines in the post.

Judge Mitchell asked several people to swear an oath on the bible that they did not receive the summonses. He then dismissed all the cases.