The High Court ruled that a driver who produced her valid UK driving licence more than a year after an alleged drink-driving incident was not entitled to a fixed penalty notice at that late stage. The court said the statutory presumption that she did not hold a valid licence remained in place after she failed to produce it within 10 days of a Garda demand.
The ruling by President of the High Court Kearns was delivered on 12 December 2014 in a consultative case stated from Dundalk District Court. The defendant, Frances McConville, had not yet gone to trial on the charge. The High Court answered questions of law referred by District Judge Hamill; it did not determine whether she was guilty.
The case stated records that Garda Patrick Dunne stopped McConville in the early hours of 10 May 2012 on Dublin Road, Dundalk, after observing that the vehicle had no lights on. A roadside breath test gave a “fail” result. A later evidential test recorded 39 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. She was charged with an offence under section 4(4)(b) of the Road Traffic Act 2010, which alleged a reading above the limit for a specified person.
At the time of the stop, Dunne demanded that she produce her driving licence within 10 days at a Garda station she nominated. She named Dundalk Garda Station but did not produce the licence there within the deadline. The case stated says she handed over licence and insurance documents in court on 20 November 2013, including UK Driver and Vehicle Agency evidence that she held a valid UK licence at the time of the alleged offence.
The defence argued that the licence meant McConville was not a “specified person” and that, given the breath reading, she should have received a fixed penalty notice before proceedings were brought. It also argued that Gardaí should have warned her that failure to produce the licence could prevent her using that procedure. The prosecution submitted that the statutory presumption applied because she missed the 10-day deadline, and that the law did not require such a warning.
The High Court held that she was presumed to be a specified person when the prosecution proceeded because she had not produced the licence within the statutory period. Her later production of it did not entitle her to a fixed penalty notice. Instead, the court said section 8A allowed the case to proceed on the basis that she could be treated as a non-specified person for an alternative verdict, if the charge were proved. The court made no finding on the alleged offence.
The court said section 29’s fixed-penalty question did not arise after its answer to the first question, and the question about the consequences of not serving a notice also did not arise. It answered “No” to whether Gardaí had to explain the consequences of failing to produce the licence. The case was returned for the District Court proceedings to continue, with guilt still undecided.