NEW GARDA OPERATION SET TO TARGET DRIVERS WHO AVOID PENALTY POINTS
55 per cent of drivers in Wexford convicted of penalty points offences are avoiding them by not producing their driving licences in court.
Yet this rate of avoidance is the lowest in the country with one of the highest rates of 89 and 84 per cent recorded in Kilkenny and Carlow.
Drivers facing sanctions are supposed to bring their licence to court to have the points registered, but more than 20,000 people didn’t do so between the start of 2014 and March of this year.
Gardai are now being directed to intercept offenders in courthouses, and they could face three months in prison or a fine of 2,000 euro.
Cork-based solicitor Frank Buttimer thinks the lack of compliance is mostly down to a lack of knowledge among drivers.
“I’d say it’s not commonly known and I’d say it’s not even conscious and deliberate avoidance” he said.
“I’d say it’s just probably lack of knowledge on the part of people who are told on the face of their summons – as far as I can recall – that they should bring their licences to court, and who are also then obliged if they don’t do that subsequently to send the licence in for the matter to be processed”.
“There’s probably an easier system” he added.
