Gardaí seize two cars as ‘phone a friend’ goes badly wrong

A man got more than he bargained for when he went to pick up his stranded friend in Co Louth on Monday morning.

Gardaí in Dundalk seized a car after they found the driver had no insurance.

Finding himself in need of a lift, he phoned a friend to come and collect him.

However, when his friend turned up in another car it too was checked by the same gardaí. It was also found to be uninsured and it too was seized.

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Those working the Garda Twitter account could not resist having some fun with the situation, saying: “Dundalk Road Policing Unit: First car stopped and seized for no insurance.

“Driver then ‘phoned a friend’ who arrived in a car which was also not insured . . . second car seized.

“Ask the audience or 50/50 still available but we think they’ll probably walk home.”

There are an estimated 150,000 uninsured cars on the roads in the Republic; the figures having doubled in the last years.

Last month, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland said the number of collision claims arising out of crashes by drivers in uninsured or untraced vehicles had increased by almost 10 per cent in the last two years.

Insurance industry sources said the increasing costs of premiums may be behind the steep rise in the number of claims.

The bureau was set up in 1955 to compensate the victims of road traffic accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles. It is funded by the insurance companies.

It pays out annually between €55 million and €60 million and the average cost per claim is €55,364.

The bureau’s figures show a total of 2,758 claims were received in 2017. This is 2 per cent down on the figure of 2,802 claims made in 2016, but up almost 10 per cent on the 2,516 claims made in 2015.