Speed van staff in court ‘a waste’ until after legal challenge

A judge yesterday told a group of speed camera van staff it would be a total waste of time and public money for them to return to the District Court until a High Court challenge to the system is ruled on.

At Ennis District Court yesterday, 18 motorists answered speeding summonses from Insp John McDonald on behalf of the Garda Fixed Charge Processing Unit.

The unit processes speeding prosecutions from detections made by the 50 or so speed camera vans operated by the privately owned Go Safe consortium.

In court yesterday, Judge Patrick Durcan - who has been a staunch critic of prosecutions brought by Go Safe - adjourned 17 of the Go Safe-connected prosecutions, with the 18th struck out by gardaí.

Explaining why he was adjourning the cases to the motorists present, Judge Durcan told them: “The law regarding fixed penalty notice is the subject of some controversy across the land. A colleague of mine has sent a case to the High Court to have the law clarified and it will examine if the law underpinning these cases is sound.”

He added: “I am unhappy about dealing with any cases until it is clarified. It may very well be that the High Court will find that the point is balderdash and that everyone will have to face the music, but at the same time, the High Court may find that there is a technical point and that all these summons will have to go.”

Adjourning all cases to September 19th, Judge Durcan addressed the five Go Safe speed camera van men present and said: “You might convey to Inspector McDonald that it is a total waste of time and public money you guys turning up here until after September 19th. Any prosecutions before then will be adjourned.”

With the men leaving their seats to exit the courtroom, Judge Durcan said: “I don’t like to see State money wasted seeing five strapping men sit here all day.”

The adjournment of all Go Safe cases ready to go before the court yesterday followed senior directors of Go Safe attending court on the previous court date relating to speed camera cases.

In May, Judge Durcan inspected a Go Safe van and also questioned why Go Safe’s firm, Road Safety Operations Ireland, has its registered company based on the Isle of Man.

In response, director of the firm that operates Go Safe, Road Safety Operations Ireland, Ivor Browne, told the judge: “The reason we introduced the Isle of Man structure was to just limit access to our accounts from a competitors’ point of view.”

Mr Browne said other companies - Smyths Toys, Barrys Tea and Dunnes Stores - also have unlimited status where they are not required to publish annual accounts “and it is quite common practice in Ireland”.

In reply, Judge Durcan said: “Except that they are not providing a function or service to the State.”

In March, Judge Durcan described as a complete waste of money Go Safe staff coming to court and failing to prosecute alleged speeding motorists “for one bad reason after another”.

Yesterday, in an exchange with one motorist facing a Go Safe prosecution, Judge Durcan told him his case had been adjourned but added: “You will get brownie points ultimately for the fact that you were here today”. To laughter in the court, the motorist asked: “Which points?”

Judge Durcan said: “Brownie points, a different category of points to the one concerned with here.”