SIXTEEN MOTORISTS WERE fined a total of €261,000 today after failing to appear in court and ignoring hundreds of unpaid M50 tolls.

Prosecutions at Dublin District Court saw motorists ordered to pay between €7,000 and €22,000 each.

While six cases were adjourned, 16 proceeded in the absence of defendants who did not show up despite being summonsed.

Owners of thirteen private cars and three large commercial vehicles faced five sample charges for dodging the motorway charges in October last year.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the State agency dealing with road and public transport infrastructure, prosecuted them after sending each driver hundreds of warning letters which were mostly ignored.

Judge Anthony Halpin noted the types of vehicles, their overall records of outstanding tolls, and their non-attendance.

In each case, he also heard details of the level of engagement with the motorway operators and records of vehicle ownership.

A truck owner, who paid for three out of 384 journeys, was fined €15,000. He had already been sent more than 300 warning letters before getting a court summons and still did not appear.

TII demonstrated that one driver paid for 17 out of 166 journeys.

He was fined €7,000 but other motorists who had not made any payments for a similar amount of trips were each fined €15,000.

The driver with the most unpaid tolls, 563, had paid for 126 trips in his private car; he was also fined €7,000.

The judge also noted that the car owner’s unpaid tolls were over four years, whereas other defendants’ were over a shorter time frame.

The 16 motorists were also ordered to pay €350 toward prosecution costs.

The judge issued a bench warrant for the arrest of one defendant.

Prosecuting counsel Thomas Rice (instructed by Pierse Fitzgibbon Solicitors) said the cases could proceed against the six in their absence.

A TII witness confirmed each vehicle’s ownership records, the number of passages, and payment history.

Some had recently stopped being owners of the cars subject to the prosecutions.

However, TII established that they were the owners at the time of the journeys. It also had images of all the vehicles passing the toll location.

The court can impose fines of up to €5,000 per charge and a six-month sentence.

However, it remains the practice of the motorway authority to select habitual non-payers to face criminal proceedings.

The standard toll for a private car is €3.20, which must be paid before 8pm the following day, or there is a €3 penalty for missing the deadline.

Motorists get 14 days to pay for the journey and the initial penalty or face a more significant fee.

The charge ramps up after 56 days; warning letters and court proceedings follow if it remains unpaid.

Commercial and goods vehicle owners pay higher tolls. In all cases, the registered vehicle owner is liable even if they were not driving.