Thousands of drivers will have their penalties overturned after a serious mistake by the gardaí.
Between 2006 and 2016 there were 147,000 offences where a court summons was issued instead of a fine.
Of those, 96 per cent had other offences that could have landed them in court, but almost 6,000 had no other offence and should have just received a fixed charge notice.
All these cases will be appealed in court with the gardaí not contesting the cases – meaning fines, possibly in the millions, will have the be re-paid.
Superintendent Con O’Donoghue apologised for the mistake.
Separately the gardaí have discovered a massive discrepancy in their recorded number of breath tests.
Almost a million extra tests were recorded – with the gardaí admitting they don’t know what caused the mistake.
Gardaí were recording the figures from memory instead of digitally, which has changed according to chief commissioner Michael Finn.
The mistakes raise questions over garda procedures, and they say an internal investigation has been launched to establish how it occurred.
