An elderly woman whose name and address were falsely used by a suspected shoplifter, received a notice of warrants for her arrest and imprisonment, despite Garda assurances that she had no involvement in the crime, the Dáil was told.
Dr Mary Upton, (Lab, Dublin South-Central) said her 76-year-old constituent was "terrified" when she got the Garda notice that a number of warrants were processed for her arrest and imprisonment, and that she believed "she is still at risk of being arrested and thrown into jail. Her name is on a file somewhere with this charge against her."
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, however, wished to assure the woman whom he described as "the victim of a cruel hoax" that "she stands without any blame of any kind whatsoever in the eyes of the law or the gaze of the State".
He said he would ensure that her innocence was emphasised to her in writing, but he added that "it is easy for me to make that promise and then for some computer-generated form to land on her doormat the day after tomorrow. If anything further does go wrong she should remain assured that it is just the result of a system operating and she should take it in good heart."
Dr Upton said the woman got a demand to pay a fine for €130 and when a neighbour intervened on her behalf a garda visited the elderly woman and confirmed that she was "not the person involved in the shoplifting incident". The woman was promised that a letter would follow, confirming her innocence. However, instead she received a notice warning of warrants for her arrest and imprisonment. Dr Upton said her innocence needed to be confirmed, that "her name is removed from the file" as well as a guarantee of no further notices of arrest.
Defending the garda the Minister said "the investigating garda went and satisfied himself, at the intervention of a neighbour, that this hoax had been perpetrated. I regret that the mills of God grind so slowly and so fine in these matters that once the computer system gets going it is hard to stop."
