Man left untaxed car on public street in Mayo town for almost a year

A MAN left a car - which he had intended to scrap - parked on a public street in Westport with no tax disc displayed on the vehicle for almost a year.

Suryajith Joy, John’s Row, Westport, told Judge Sandra Murphy at Castlebar District Court that he didn’t have the money at the time to get the car moved.

It wasn’t until a traffic warden with Mayo County Council came upon the vehicle on September 27 of last year at John’s Row where he noticed the car had no tax disc on the windscreen.

A fixed charge penalty notice was issued but went unpaid.

The defendant told Judge Murphy that he was hoping to sell parts of the car as he was scraping it as it was not worth repairing.

He said he had intended to move the car but didn’t have the money to do so as it would have cost about €300.

He agreed he had left it outside the address he was living in at John’s Row, Westport, for almost a year but had intended to have it moved but hadn’t done so.

The car only came to light when traffic warden Paul Franklin’s attention was drawn to the untaxed car on September 27, 2025.

He could not say when the car had been taxed last on the vehicle.

Judge Murphy said it was one thing having a car parked without having a tax disc on it but to have it taking up a public space in a town like Westport where parking can be hard to get was inexcusable.

In mitigation, Judge Murphy accepted the defendant had no previous convictions.

Despite getting a fixed charge penalty notice to pay €60 and a follow up notice to pay €90 the defendant had not made any effort to pay the tax.

Judge Murphy imposed a fine of €100 and ordered the defendant to pay costs of €50 to Mayo County Council.

* Funded under the Courts Reporting Scheme.