The penalty points system suffered a serious setback yesterday when five motorists won a legal challenge because they claimed to have never received the initial notices of their alleged speeding.
The five were clocked by a Garda speed van allegedly exceeding the limit on the Lucan and Naas bypasses in February last year.
They were summonsed to Dublin District Court after failing to pay fines issued shortly afterwards by ordinary post.
The motorists claimed that, as they had not received the initial notice of the speeding, they had not been given the opportunity to pay the fines and receive only two penalty points on their licences, as against four if they were convicted in court.
If they had received the notices, they would have been able to avoid having to go to court, their lawyers argued.
In the absence of any proof that the notices had been sent, they asked that the cases against them be dismissed.
Gardaí said the notices had been sent and asked Judge Brian Smyth to state a legal case to the High Court on whether sending notices by ordinary post was valid. The cases were adjourned on February 20th last to allow the State to consider its position.
Yesterday the prosecution told Judge Smyth that the State was "conceding the point" made by the defendants.
Judge Smyth dismissed all five cases.
Legal sources said the ruling could have implications for thousands of cases where people argue they have not received notification of their alleged speeding.
It means the State must either amend the law to allow for the presumption that gardaí have validly sent notices by ordinary post or else introduce registered post for all such notifications.