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I could do with some legal advice.
I received a court summons today in relation to driving without insurance. The incident happened on 02/12/2020.
I moved across from the UK to Ireland in April 2020. I brought across my car which had a UK plate. In order to change the plates over to Irish plates I tried to book a VRT appointment. However, because of Covid all of the NCT centres were closed. I finally managed to get an appointment on 30/11/2020 where I was able to get my Irish plates. I was told that I should wait 24 hours after I paid the motor tax (paid on 01/12/2020) before changing the plates over which I did.
At the time of the incident I had my UK Plates on. I was pulled over by the Gards. They asked me to produce my insurance documents. I showed them my UK insurance policy which was valid until Feb 2021. They said that it wasn't valid in Ireland. Apparently, I can only drive up to 90 days with my UK insurance policy in Ireland. I admit I wasnt aware of this. I had tried to get Irish insurance on my UK plates on websites like Chill but when i wented my registration it came up with error messages such as 'Your vehicle registration must be in the format 131X123456 or 07XX123456'.
After the incident, I went home and got Irish insurance on my Irish plates and put the Irish plates on the car. I had to go to the Police station the next day to show this in order get the car from the compound.
I have never had a court summons before or never been to court. So I have no idea how to proceed with this.
- Do I have a defence? For example, had Covid not had happened I would have got the car VRTd within 30 days of entering Ireland and obviously then got Irish insurance. Moving countries can also be stressful - lots of things to do and register for and its easy to miss something like only being allowed to drive with UK insurance for 90 days. We also had our first baby in June 2020. This is also my first offence ever like this.
- Should I appoint a solicitor?
- The Gard who served me said I could contact the officer who alleged the offence. Should I do this?
Any help would be much appreciated
