The High Court has dismissed an anonymised accused person’s application to stop a pending criminal prosecution, ruling that claims about delay, a deceased witness and missing records should be assessed by the trial court on the evidence as it develops.
The judicial review application concerned a prosecution pending in the Circuit Criminal Court. The applicant, one of two co-accused, faces multiple charges of theft, forgery and using a false instrument relating to vehicle sales at a car dealership where he had been employed as dealer principal. The allegations have not been determined, and the judgment emphasised the presumption of innocence.
The accused argued that a fair trial was no longer possible because the dealership’s former managing director died in August 2023, after charges were laid in 2020. The accused said the director could have been questioned about his alleged practice of approving vehicle transactions and initialling sales contracts. The defence position was that the accused’s actions had the director’s knowledge or consent. The prosecution case, as outlined in the judgment, included the managing director’s statement that he had not consented.
The court said the significance of the witness’s absence depended on disputed facts, including the director’s involvement in individual transactions. It also found that the accused had not yet explained how the director might have approved alleged changes to sales records that appeared to offer no benefit to the dealership. The court held that the judicial review record did not establish a real possibility that the director’s evidence would have assisted the defence. It left open the possibility of providing an explanation at trial.
The accused also alleged that gardaí had failed to preserve or obtain business records, including vehicle preparation and repair records, and complained that a dealership complaint to gardaí had not been disclosed. The High Court said these issues, like whether any delay was culpable, were matters for the trial court and could require evidence beyond the affidavits before it.
A trial date fixed for February 2022 was vacated in December 2023, with no new date set. The High Court noted that more than a decade had passed since the earliest alleged events and said it was unsatisfactory that the criminal trial had not taken place. It said a hearing date should be fixed as soon as possible. The judicial review proceedings were listed for submissions on costs on 14 October 2025.