Offaly speeding summonses adjourned after judge raises legal issue
Case stated could jeopardise all prosecutions involving nominated drivers
ALL prosecutions for speeding involving nominated drivers could be in jeopardy after a judge indicated he will state a case on a technical issue.
Judge Andrew Cody told Tullamore District Court he will state a case on February 18 next after considering submissions from parties for and against the admissibility of nomination forms.
Owners of vehicles are often prosecuted for speeding after being recorded by a GoSafe operator even though they were not driving at the time.
The owner can complete what is known as a nomination form where the actual driver is named and then summonsed.
At Wednesday's sitting of the District Court, Andrew Dunne, BL, appearing for John Christopher O'Dea (63), Colt, Ballyroan, Co Laois, applied to Judge Cody not to admit a nomination form. Mr Dunne said Mr O'Dea had been nominated by someone else.
A GoSafe operator gave evidence of recording a vehicle travelling at 90kph in an 80kph zone on the N80 at Ballynasrah, Killeigh on August 19, 2024.
Mr O'Dea was summonsed for the alleged offence and Sergeant Brendan Kearns, court presenter, handed in a certificate of ownership for the vehicle, which named Delaney Commercials Ltd, and a certificate of nomination.
When Judge Cody asked if the nomination form was an original or a certified copy, Sergeant Kearns said it was not.
The judge said the document before him was printed by a company called Tico Mail Ltd in Dublin.
Mr Dunne said it was clear to him from the relevant section of the Road Traffic Act that only an original document could be admissible in court and it had been confirmed that the document presented by the prosecution was neither an original or a duly authenticated copy.
Sergeant Kearns said Shane Moore was the fleet manager with Delaney Commercials and further stated that the original document would be held by the Garda fixed charge office in Thurles.
Sergeant Kearns said the gardai process about 200,000 fixed charge notices each year and they are “heavily reliant” on an automated process which involves scanning the original nominations as they are received.
The scanned versions are printed as “an exact copy” and form part of the prosecution pack. He said it would be a “hugely retrograde step” for the efficiency of An Garda Siochana processes to produce those documents in court and they rely on a presumption in the act unless evidence is presented to the contrary.
Judge Cody remarked that the prosecution could be “inserting” into that presumption a copy of the original document and Mr Dunne said the specific section of the act applies to the original.
The judge said he would allow both parties to make written submissions to him by the court sitting on January 28 next (instructing that those submissions be lodged on January 26) and he would then state a case on February 18.
He said it was his view that the prosecution was only entitled to rely on the copy of a document when it's certified to be a true copy of the original.
A case stated [where it is referred to the High Court] could “take the bones of nine months”, added Judge Cody, adjourning the prosecution of Mr O'Dea, plus about a dozen others, to December 2, 2026.
Patrick Martin, solicitor, told the court he had requested disclosure in relation to a number of those being prosecuted.