A man has said he could not have received a fixed-charge notice on the date Gardaí claim he received it in Killarney – because he was in Cork Prison that day.
vehicle was detected driving at 96 kilometres per hour in a 60-kilometre-an-hour zone at Bunagarha, Listowel, on the afternoon of April 25 this year. The vehicle’s registered owners nominated Tyrone Kelly (36) of 28 Cois Lí, Tralee, as the person driving at the time.
Sgt Kieran O’Connell told Listowel District Court that a fixed-charge notice was generated on the back of this and then issued to Mr Kelly’s address, but it was returned unserved.
On May 18, it was sent to Tralee Garda Station for hand delivery, and Sgt O’Connell said that the notice was served at New Road, Killarney, on May 28.
Mr Kelly, represented on Thursday by solicitor Pat Mann, told the Court that he was indeed given a document by Gardaí, but this was a court summons, and he received it on a later date. He said he wasn’t sure of the date but that it might have been in July or August. Judge David Waters observed that the summons was, in fact, served on September 13.
Mr Kelly said that he had received “nothing else” from Gardaí by way of documentation relating to the matter.
He said that he was given the summons at a Garda station as he had to sign on daily. He told Sgt O’Connell, however, that he was “one-million-per-cent sure” that he could not have received the fixed-charge notice on the day in question. When Sgt O’Connell asked why, Mr Kelly said, “because I was in Cork Prison on that date”.
The matter has been adjourned to January 6 for finalisation.
