Judge slates fixed charge traffic fines system

'ABSOLUTELY totally and utterly ridiculous as well as a bloody disgrace” is how a Judge described the state of the fixed charge penalty system when several defendants before Tuam Court described their unsuccessful efforts to pay their fines. Others swore they never received a demand to pay the fixed fine and walked away on a technicality.
Judge Geoffrey Browne was expressing his frustrations with a system which on the one hand still allowed defendants to walk away from a fine if they are willing to swear in court they didn’t receive a fixed charge notice in the post before they were summoned to court, while on the other hand people who were trying to pay were having their money returned over red tape nit-picking.