Motorists have speeding charges withdrawn after court loophole emerges

Stephen Maguire

A number of Donegal motorists had their charges of speeding withdrawn after a court loophole emerged in the cases.

The motorists appeared at a sitting of Letterkenny District Court before Judge Eiteain Cunningham.

Two operators of the GoSafe speed detection vehicles appeared in court to give evidence in the cases of a number of motorists allegedly driving over the speed limit.

The cases related to a number of locations across Donegal including Dromore outside Letterkenny.

Garda Sergeant Gerard Dalton invited the GoSafe operators to give evidence of the cases.

The speed van operators were sworn in and Sergeant Dalton asked the operators to give their evidence.

A number of those charged with the speeding offences had already indicated that they were pleading guilty.

The GoSafe operators gave evidence of the speeds being travelled as well as the locations and also the identity of the registered owner of the vehicle.

The operator also revealed that fixed charge penalty notices had been issued to the registered owner of the various vehicles.

Sergeant Dalton then asked the operator if he could tell the court if the fixed charge notice had been paid.

The operator said he could not say if the fixed charge notices had been paid or not as he did not have access to this information.

Sergeant Dalton replied that he would have to withdraw the cases.

In another case, the speed van operator was asked the date on which the alleged incident happened and he could not find this on the data sheet for the alleged incident and this case was also withdrawn.