A MAN has sued for damages after his €200,000 Porsche car was seized and he and his Colombian girlfriend were left stranded on the roadway.
Gardaí claimed that Sean McCarthy became argumentative and confrontational when they seized his Porsche.
Mr McCarthy has told the court he is a retired 67-year-old engineer living in Andorra for the past 16-years who spends income from investments to build schools for impoverished children in South America.
Garda Gary Quinn said he and colleagues Grainne Bligh and Donna Walsh had detained the car near Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, in February last year, on suspicion it may have been imported in breach of vehicle registration tax legislation.
He told Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court that when a colleague at Blanchardstown Garda station confirmed that Mr McCarthy had an address at Whitehall House, Castleknock, Dublin, they decided to seize the Andorran registered car.
Garda Quinn said gardaí had power under the Finance Act of 2001 to detain a vehicle to facilitate further inquiries by gardaí and the Revenue Commissioners where there was a reasonable suspicion importation laws may have been breached.
Mr McCarthy is suing the State and the Garda authorities for up to €38,000 damages for negligence and breach of duty in having seized his car, leaving him and his partner, Colombian-born Patricia Rodriguez, stranded on the N3 dual carriageway at Blanchardstown.
He told his counsel, Hugh O’Keeffe, the car had been impounded while he was on an annual holiday in Ireland despite having shown the gardaí his vehicle documentation.
Garda Quinn said Mr McCarthy refused to listen to garda explanations about the detention of his car and had started name dropping, asking that they contact the then minister for justice, Brian Lenihan who would vouch for him.
“He became argumentative and confrontational with us and refused to co-operate or help speed our inquiries along. His manner was borderline on aggressive towards myself and my colleagues,” Garda Quinn said.
He told Mr O’Keeffe that documentation produced by Mr Mc Carthy was in a foreign language but agreed he had heard a Customs and Excise officer tell the court he had no difficulty accepting its authenticity before handing Mr McCarthy back his car five hours later.
The case continues today.