DPP -v- Leipina
Neutral citation (2011) IESC 3.
Supreme Court
Judgment was delivered on February 2nd, 2011, by Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, Ms Justice Fidelma Macken and Mr Justice Liam McKechnie concurring.
Judgment
In response to two questions on a case stated from the Circuit Court, the Supreme Court ruled that an Irish-registered car insured in Latvia was not covered for use in Ireland under the “green card” system and the existence of such a green card was not a defence to a charge of driving without insurance.
Background
The two accused were the Latvian owner and driver of an Irish-registered car stopped at a checkpoint near Carrick-on- Shannon in 2005. The motor tax had expired in 2003. When questioned about it, the driver said that the local tax office would not accept his Latvian certificate of insurance.
The garda said he did not consider that this insured the driver to drive the car in Ireland and he seized the car.
On inquiry, the insurance certificate was a genuine one issued by a proper Latvian insurance company.
The garda established that in order for an insurance company to issue vehicle insurance in Ireland, the company had to be a member of the Motor Insurers Board of Ireland, which the Latvian company was not. Only insurance issued by a member was acceptable under the Road Traffic Acts, he considered.
Brenda Kearns of the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland gave evidence that the system known as the “green card” only operated in relation to visiting vehicles from other EU countries and designated territories.
The green card, or international insurance card, is proof that a car is insured when it enters another participating country. It is not in itself an insurance certificate. Counsel for the defendants argued that it covered Irish-registered vehicles driven in Ireland and insured abroad.
Having outlined the relevant legislation, Mr Justice Finnegan said that while the green card was not a certificate of insurance, where it existed the vehicle was deemed to be insured and any claim would be satisfied by the Motor Insurers Bureau, which would recoup the amount from the foreign insurer or the insurance bureau of the country in which the car was insured.
This was supplemented by an EU directive. Mr Justice Finnegan said the effect of the directive was that a vehicle normally based in one member state may enter the territory of another member state on production of a green card in which event the vehicle would be treated as insured for the purposes of compensating victims whether insured or not.
However the insurance had to be issued in the country in which the vehicle was registered, he pointed out.
Decision
“The green card upon which the accuseds seek to rely was not issued in the country in which the vehicle is registered. A green card issued in respect of a vehicle registered in Ireland is of no effect or relevance in Ireland,” he said.
He pointed out that the insurance directives and the EU’s insurance regulations applied to vehicles registered in one country and travelling in another. They had no relevance whatsoever to the domestic law of the State requiring compulsory insurance of vehicles registered within that State.
The green card issued by the Latvian insurance company was not an approved policy of insurance under the Irish legislation.
He answered No to each of the questions as to whether the vehicle was covered under the green card system and whether an insurance policy attested by a green card could be a defence to a charge of driving without insurance.
The full judgment is on courts.ie
Sunniva McDonagh SC, instructed by the Chief Prosecution Solicitor, for the DPP; Ciarán O’Loughlin SC and Donal Keane BL, instructed by John Gerard Cullen, Solrs, Carrick- on-Shannon, for the defendants .