Wilson: Garda failure to serve summonses costing State millions
Garda whistleblower John Wilson claims the state is still losing millions of euro because summonses are not being served.
Mr Wilson, who is now retired from the force, said figures he has obtained from the Courts Service show that while over 1.6 million summonses were issued between 2009 and 2012, 646,509 of them weren't ever served by Gardaí.
Wilson believes the vast majority of those emanated from non-payment of fixed penalty point notices.
In response, Gardaí have issued a statement saying there are "long standing issues" beyond their control which mean summonses sometimes cannot be served.
Wilson, however, believes the figures that he has uncovered prove continued corruption in the penalty points system.
"As far as I'm concerned, the vast majority of these summonses that were issued by the Courts Service relate to the non-payment of fixed charge penalty notices," he said.
"When a fixed notice is not paid, a summons is automatically issued. This is another spoke in this wheel of corruption," he said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin's spokesperson on Justice, Padraig Mac Lochlainn, has called on both the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan to appear before the Justice Committee over the latest allegations.
