Summons for Speeding

Long time lurker, first time poster - please go easy on me!

Last May I was caught speeding, was pulled over by an undercover Garda. I immediately apologised and accepted that I was in the wrong. On handing over my license I was told I would be receiving two penalty points and an 80e fine which would arrive by post.

Throughout June and July I waited for aforementioned letter but it never arrived. In my innocence I thought the Garda who did seem very nice was impressed with my unreserved apology and I thought he might have just let me off!

However last week to my shock, I received by registered post a summons for court in November for ''driving a mechanically propelled vehicle....at a speed which exceeded the built up area speed limit of 50km per hour applicable to the said road by virtue of section 5 of the Road Traffic Act 2004."

So have I just been summonsed straight to court? or did I not receive the penalty points letter? I would have happily paid the 80euro fine and taken the penalty points but I never got the opportunity! I am worried about this situation, what sort of punishment am I facing?

I am meeting a solicitor next week but would just like to get a few additional views here so I'm not completely clueless when meeting with him.

Many thanks for reading.

tell the judge you did not recieve the letter,he will more than likely allow you to pay the 80 euro and take the points,just be honest.

Similar thing happened to me. is the address on your DL same as the one you live at?

Mine wasn't, the postman knows my buisness address and dropped the reg letter around, it was signed by someone else. Anyhow, my offense was a 1 point offence, but when i went to court to explain what happened, my solicitor was asked, is your client pleading guilty to the offense or not? I pleaded guilty but with migating circumstances, to cut a long story short I was fined €100 euro. Since the court has nothing to do with points, thats the RSA, the judge never mentioned points. Low and behold, a month or so later I received notification from the RSA that I had been found guilty in a court of law and my 1 point offence had turned into 3 points.

My only regret is not going to court and defending myself, I would advice you do that, the judge may throw it out.

Yes my address is the same as on my license.

While I have no problem taking the original two points and paying the fine, I would not be happy if by pleading guilty to above offence I was given additional points and a bigger fine for what appears to be an administrative error on their part?!

Surely the penalty points letter should be sent by registered post? Is there some sort of onus on me to look about paying the penalty points, like should I have contacted RSA or some such body immediately after I was apprehended to pay points before I had received notification?

Many thanks for replies.

thegambler said:

Yes my address is the same as on my license.

While I have no problem taking the original two points and paying the fine, I would not be happy if by pleading guilty to above offence I was given additional points and a bigger fine for what appears to be an administrative error on their part?!

Surely the penalty points letter should be sent by registered post? Is there some sort of onus on me to look about paying the penalty points, like should I have contacted RSA or some such body immediately after I was apprehended to pay points before I had received notification?

Many thanks for replies.

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Just ring up the station you were supposed to have sent the fine to. I've had summonses for parking fines before where I've simply paid the fine over the phone and the court appearance was cancelled

same as that. summonsed for not displaying a current tax disc...oops! damn parkin warden did me for it!! paid it before i went to into court and it was struck out. happy days!!

What was the date of the application of the summons, i.e. the date the gard applied to xxxxx. Has 6 months passed between then and the issue date of the summons?