Worried Sick - Caught with no Motor Tax

[ragazza]

Hi OP,

I was caught with my car tax 11 months out of date, and was summonsed to court, so can tell you exactly what happens.

I arrived in the court (get there early since there is not much parking around). You are not given any directions on what to do - just given a number and ushered into a large very noisy courtroom. It wasnt a courtroom with raised seats like a cinema - just a room with rows of benches and a raised area for the judge in front.
The place was bedlam - about 100 people in the room; people in handcuffs shouting and being restrained by gardai, other people coming in and out of the courtroom and yelling and banding doors. I could barely hear a word the judge was saying on the other cases, and was afraid that I would miss my turn (since the numbers seemed to move very quickly and with the racket would be very easy to miss yours).

Anyway, when it came to my turn I went up to the area in front and had to confirm my name, and the judge called for the garda who had booked me. I was lucky in that she didnt turn up, so it was thrown out of court. (Many other cases where thrown out of court that morning too - so you may be lucky).

So I wouldnt worry about it - you have now back-paid your taxes, so the most you would get is a small fine.

Good luck!

 

[ClubMan]

Anyway, when it came to my turn I went up to the area in front and had to confirm my name, and the judge called for the garda who had booked me. I was lucky in that she didnt turn up, so it was thrown out of court. (Many other cases where thrown out of court that morning too - so you may be lucky).

But what happens if they are not lucky and the relevant Garda does turn up in court?

 

[Humpback]

But what happens if they are not lucky and the relevant Garda does turn up in court?

Make sure that they don't. Have you never seen the Sopranos????

 

[podgerodge]

Ah for gods sake, stop trying to wind this poor person up. They made a mistake, they got caught, they are going to be punished. But unless they have a list of prior convictions longer than my arm, there is no possibility of prison for this offence.

I doubt very much that this person made a mistake (except the mistake of stupidity). If the fines for this are small then that's wrong. Why the hell should I pay my road tax while others don't until they get caught and only pay a small fine. I hope he gets the book thrown at him.

Same with the TV licence (or lack of ) brigade - I met someone last week that got off scott free when they showed the court they had just gone out and purchased a license - how's that gonna encourage people to pay.

 

[Humpback]

I doubt very much that this person made a mistake (except the mistake of stupidity). If the fines for this are small then that's wrong. Why the hell should I pay my road tax while others don't until they get caught and only pay a small fine. I hope he gets the book thrown at him.

Same with the TV licence (or lack of ) brigade - I met someone last week that got off scott free when they showed the court they had just gone out and purchased a license - how's that gonna encourage people to pay.

Hear hear.... and I hope it's a very big book....

 

[Vanilla]

I agree it's a fair cop. However in the overall scheme of things it is still a minor offence. Don't forget that the court will ensure there is no loss of revenue to the state, this person will have to attend court or pay someone to attend for them, if its a rural area, may well have their name in the paper, and will still end up with a conviction and a fine. For a first offence, I think that's punishment enough.

 

[ubiquitous]

Mary Kenny wrote a very interesting article in the Indo magazine recently about what she called the 'Stasiland' phenomenon - that large numbers of people in this country are now calling for the State, in all its guises, to punish citizens for each and every transgression of the law, without taking account of mitigating circumstances and without any distinction between habitual and serious offenders and those whose crimes are few & minor in comparision.

She likened this phenomenon to the way that the former East German government used the dreaded Stasi secret police establishment to mercilessly bully its citizens into conformity with its laws and political ideals.

I think its quite bizarre that we seem to be heading in the same direction, as evidenced by some of the comments above.

 

[ClubMan]

There must be an equivalent of Godwin's Law that can be invoked in the context of such hyperbolous comparisons between the prosecution of tax evasion and other misdemeanours by the Irish state and the operations of the infamous DDR secret police?

 

[ubiquitous]

In fairness Ms Kenny's comments were more concerned with the attitudes underlying the new wave of what was once called the 'string 'em up brigade' than the actual implementation of the law by the authorities.

 

[Humpback]

large numbers of people in this country are now calling for the State, in all its guises, to punish citizens for each and every transgression of the law, without taking account of mitigating circumstances and without any distinction between habitual and serious offenders and those whose crimes are few & minor in comparision.

We didn't get any mitigating circumstances from the OP with regards to why they didn't pay their car tax - none were offered as an excuse. This lead me to believe, and other here, to believe that they didn't pay the tax on purpose.

We also had the clown who's posts were deleted with the 2.5l car who didn't pay the tax because it was too expensive, and purposefully disregarded the the law as well.

These are situations where I say throw the book at them. To be bringing comments regarding "Stasiland" and that ridiculous article by Mary Kenny into it isn't really adding to the discussion.

Motor tax, to all intents and purposes, is a luxury tax. As is a television licence. If you can't afford the tax on the item, don't use the item.

The same people who won't pay their motor tax are people who'll (I'm guessing) not really care about the price of petrol, who'll drive absolutely everywhere, and will pay a fortune for parking just because they drove somewhere.

Similarly, it's quite likely that people who won't pay for their TV licence will still pay €90 or whatever every couple of months to have Sky Sports and Sky Movies.

As someone who can afford my luxuries, and pay the taxes on these, I don't think it's in any way similar to "Stasiland" or the "string 'em up brigade" to have a little pleasure when people who don't pay their taxes are caught.

And, in the true meaning of Stasiland (from my memory of leaving cert history), I won't actually be informing the authorities about those people in Ireland who aren't paying the taxes they should.