'I started to panic'- Man's car impounded due to garda glitch during random stop

A man in Dublin was on Newstalk recently after a frustrating experience with the Gardaí who pulled him over and impounded his car due to a glitch in the system.

The listener, who is named Sean, said that he was out one Saturday morning when he was pulled over by Gardai who checked his tax, NCT and car insurance.

Sean explained that he had paid for his insurance two weeks prior and had his updated insurance disc on display in his car.

Despite this, when gardai checked their system it said that his insurance was actually out of date since August 4.

"I started to panic....I was thinking maybe it isn't.... maybe I did something wrong," Sean said. "I had a wedding that same weekend so I was a bit all over the place but why would they send out the new disc if it wasn't paid?".

Sean told Newstalk that he produced an email from his insurance company that he received on the 5th of August that said he was in fact insured along with confirmation of payment. 

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The gardai impounded his car and Sean had to go without it for two days until it was available to collect again.

"I didn't really second guess it.... I thought my insurance wasn't in date....maybe there was a glitch in the system....they impounded the car there and then.....I had to get out of the car and car was taken off of me....I was felt like I was some sort of criminal....".

Afterwards, Sean rang his insurance company who confirmed he was insured and sent an email to confirm it.

He went to the garda station then and he said that one of the gardai there said that this wasn't the first time something like that had happened.