Two Laois women fined for having non-conforming number plates on cars
Portlaoise Courthouse
A WOMAN was fined a total of €360 for having no registration number plate on the front of her car and a non-conforming number plate on the back of her car.
At last week’s sitting of Portlaoise District Court, Rowena Louisa Greene (47), 4 New Road, Portlaoise pleaded guilty to the offences that took place on Dublin Road, Ballyroan on 28 October last year.
Prosecuting Garda O’Hanlon said the defendant has four previous convictions.
Ms Greene told Judge Susan Fay: “I changed the plates the following day. The front one had fallen off and I put it in the front windscreen.” Judge Fay ruled as outlined in this case.
In a similar case before the court, Shania McCormack, Oak Drive, Ballacollig, Mountmellick pleaded guilty to having a non-conforming front number plate on her car at Abbeyleix Road, Portlaoise on 27 October last year and to having a non-conforming back number plate on her car at Clonsoghey, Portlaoise on 7 November last year.
Garda Hogan said that he issued Ms McCormack with fixed charge penalty notices that went unpaid.
Her solicitor Philip Meagher said that the legislation on non-conforming number plates had changed last year and that his client was unaware of the changes.
Judge Fay asked what was the issue with Ms McCormack’s number plates at the time, to which Garda Hogan said that the ANPR did not recognise them and they weren’t picked up on the system.
She went on to convict the defendant on both offences and fined her €130 on both.
* In Ireland, vehicle registration plates must comply with strict format and visibility standards. Non-conforming plates include those that use custom or non-standard fonts, have incorrect sizes, colours or spacing, omit the EU flag or ‘IRL’ identifier and that are designed to defeat Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems. Each non-regulation, missing or obscured plate can result in a €60 fixed charge notice per plate. If these go unpaid, people are summoned before the courts.
