RTA with foreign Registered car

B

Bongo

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My Mrs skidded into the back of an "LV" registered car after he "jammed on" in the West Link Eazypass lane today. I can only assume she was driving too close to him and too fast for the wet road conditions, but then again you don't expect a car to "Jam on" in the Eazypass lane.

She suggested calling the gardai, but he insisted there was no point as it would cost her in the long run. He then said he would settle for €1,000 cash, which he wanted immediately. He wanted her to go straight to an ATM, and even advised her she could take out the full amount on a credit card.

When she refused he said he'd meet her later for the cash. Basically she was in shock and he was very intimidating. I said no way when she told me, and went straight to the Gardai. When she rang him to say the deal was off he got abusive and said he was calling to the house. After living in Ireland for four years he's still driving an LV registered car. Proper insurance, paying road tax & VRT - I don't think so!

Anybody heard of this scenario before as it stinks of scam to me?
 
While I havn't heard of this particular situation if he persists I would get on to your insurance company and let them take care of it. The insurance companies have a database of name & addresses of all claimants so these details can be cross checked.

Did you/your wife get his insurance details. His insurers, if foreign, may be interested to know that he is driving a car in Ireland for the last number of years.

Contact customs about the foreign registered car (I tought that all foreign registered car have to be re registered in Ireland with a certain time period - could be wrong on this)
 
First thing is unfortunately your wife was at fault. Rear ending a car, irrespective of braking, road conditions etc. is always wrong.

Secondly she should have called the Gardai on the spot.

In any event she is responsible, but the attitiude of the foreign driver and the status of his car, insurance etc. are a bit odd. Why did he act like that? Has he something to hide?

I'd involve the cops at this point.
 
Call the cops - Had a simalar exp! I'd love to give you the details but I can't discuss them here!
 
Garda are now involved. No interest in the RTA, but taking the harassment very seriously. 10/10 for the Garda on their response. Have told him they will arrest and charge him if he contacts us again.

Appears the Garda have little power over these non-nationals when it comes to vehicle registration / insurance / road tax. As one garda said - they can't even read any documents they produce anyway!

According to the Gardai, the guy has no prior record. His insurance is foregin - what a surprise! Has still to produce his licence & insurance at the Garda station. Also I reckon his car is over 10 years old so it's not even worth €1,000.

Will keep you posted...
 
sorry to hear that bongo but in short he has you by the you know where.I had similar rta about 2 years ago on a bypass barely touched the rear of this guy it was a 12 year old car he had he made a similar offer to me as your wife recieved i told him where to put it same thing got solictors letter claimed me my insurance went up from 550euro to 1700euro and im still paying inflated insurance the guy got 43000 euro in court this guy know what they are doing
 
I thought shakes mcdowell was going to bring legislation so garda can check out insurance on imported cars. all talk as usual As one poster above implies 4 years appears to a bit on the long side to re register.
 
I am probably going off the main topic but it is very frustrating to hear of non Irish people driving on our roads with cars that would not pass an NCT and we are being failed on trivilalities that do not make the car unsafe to drive ie Atha Cliath not on number plate.. same car passed eighteen months ago with the same number plates
 
Same thing happened to us couple of years ago. Husband insisted insurance company fight the claim as he didn't want to lose his no claims bonus. Heard no more about it, suspect insurance co. settled.

Also many years ago brought car into country from England. We were only home about 3 months when a car pulled us up on road and out popped two customs men. Had to prove we'd owned car for at least a year abroad and apply to import it. If we owned it for less time then excise was due on it. Told at the time that the longest you can drive a foreign reg. car is 6 months. How times have changed...or have they??
 
liteweight said:
Same thing happened to us couple of years ago. Husband insisted insurance company fight the claim as he didn't want to lose his no claims bonus. Heard no more about it, suspect insurance co. settled.
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Just for the record, your no-claims bonus is just that - no claims. It is not a 'no blame' bonus. Regardless of the liability issue, if you have a claim against you, you will normally lose your bonus.
 
asdfg said:
I tought that all foreign registered car have to be re registered in Ireland with a certain time period - could be wrong on this
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No, you are correct..
"You must register your car and pay VRT by the end of the next working day following its arrival into Ireland"..See OASIS.GOV.IE

Also, "Any delay in registering your vehicle or paying Vehicle Registration Tax will make you liable to substantial penalties - including forfeiture of your vehicle and prosecution. "
 
RainyDay said:
Just for the record, your no-claims bonus is just that - no claims. It is not a 'no blame' bonus. Regardless of the liability issue, if you have a claim against you, you will normally lose your bonus.
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In the case of a RTA, can an individual claim against directly against another one (i.e. the OP received a letter from the other guy's solicitor) or should everything not go through insurance companies?
 
Of course they can directly sue each other but it would then go to the insurance as it would be unlikely that they would have the funds to employ solictors to defend any claim.
 
bond-007 said:
Of course they can directly sue each other but it would then go to the insurance as it would be unlikely that they would have the funds to employ solictors to defend any claim.
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True, but if you run into me and I choose to claim off you directly instead of claiming off my insurance company and letting them sue you, I keep my no-claims bonus intact. You will almost certainly refer the claim to your insurance company, and if responsibilities are clear and the damage isn't huge, they may well pay up without having to involve any solicitors. I may have difficulty moving insurers when I'm asked the 'have you had any accidents' question.
 
Over the past 5 years I've twice been working in Industrial estates in Dublin where Customs set up check points for cars not registered in Ireland (there may also have been diesel checks, I'm not sure).
At both time people I was working with got landed with large fines, 1 after driving a northern ireland reg for upwards of 6 year, the other a french reg after living in Ireland for 3 years. I have to admit my sympathy wasn't exactly overflowing!
Its a pity that customs don't set up a sting on the M50 occasionally, it makes me laugh the number of cars registered for eAsypass that are not Irish reg.
Good luck
 
I spotted a Polish-registered car carrying sign-painted adverts for 'University Painters' with Irish 1800/087 contact numbers. Is this a clear breach of the customs regulations?
 
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