The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has indicated that certain criminal convictions recorded over recent years in a District Court could be vulnerable to challenge, following claims from a garda whistleblower.
According to correspondence seen by RTÉ Investigates, GSOC said it found corroborating evidence supporting the whistleblower's claims that officers at a garda station in the east of the country unlawfully used a replica of a Peace Commissioner's signature stamp when making statutory declarations in court summonses.
The whistleblower told GSOC they believed "thousands of summonses are involved and wrongly forwarded to the courts," leading to wrongful convictions.
Retired District Court judge Michael Pattwell told RTÉ Investigates that he was "deeply shocked" to learn about the practice.
Asked what he would do if faced with this practice as a serving judge, Mr Pattwell told RTÉ Investigates: "I’d refuse to make any order, taking the view that the matter wasn’t properly before the court."
The allegations were contained in a protected disclosure to GSOC in 2019. In a letter to the whistleblower, GSOC described the allegations as "serious" and noted that "offences may have been committed."
In January 2020, GSOC launched a criminal investigation and later informed the whistleblower that it had "obtained evidence which corroborates" the allegations made in the protected disclosure.
However, the investigation was halted in May 2022. GSOC said it could not proceed without a witness statement from the whistleblower that would reveal the whistleblower’s identity, a step they were unwilling to take, for fear of reprisals from colleagues.
'Rubber stamps’ not acceptable
Peace Commissioners, appointed by the Minister for Justice under 1920s legislation, are unpaid officials responsible for verifying that individuals are who they claim to be on certain documents.
They’re typically well-known and respected individuals in their local communities. Their duties involve signing summonses and warrants, as well as witnessing signatures required by certain authorities (for example, by the Passport Service on passport applications).
They also take statutory declarations - written statements of fact that a person declares to be true.
When a garda serves a court summons by registered post to notify a defendant of a pending court case, the serving garda must then sign a statutory declaration stating the date and time it was sent.
A Peace Commissioner personally signs this declaration, confirming either their familiarity with the garda or that the garda has been identified to them.
Department of Justice guidelines state that Peace Commissioner signatures on official documents must be handwritten at all times and that "rubber stamp" signatures are "not acceptable."
The guidelines also state that after the declaration is signed and dated, it should be returned to the person who made it.
Once signed, the declaration is attached to the court summons and sent to the District Court. If necessary, the Peace Commissioner may be required to appear before the District Court judge to answer any questions about the declaration.
There have been instances in which District Courts have struck out cases because statutory declarations have not been completed correctly by Peace Commissioners.
‘Widespread false completion of declarations’
RTÉ Investigates has seen a copy of the protected disclosure made by the whistleblower in February 2019, whose allegations focus on a named Peace Commissioner and garda station.
The whistleblower referred to a practice involving the "widespread false completion of statutory declarations on summonses", which they said had come to their attention in August 2018. They added that they believed this practice had been going on for "possibly a couple of years."
The protected disclosure said that declarations "are being completed by members themselves by having access to a facsimile stamp belonging to a Peace Commissioner and using it freely."
It also said that blank summonses were being stamped with the facsimile stamp, to be completed later, "negating the necessity of going to the PC."
'I fear reprisals'
RTÉ Investigates has seen photographs of the facsimile stamp, which the whistleblower says were taken at the garda station.
In their protected disclosure, the whistleblower stated they were "unable to report this practice to management as I fear it will not be dealt with properly. I also fear serious reprisals and alienation for exposing this practice."
The whistleblower later explained to RTÉ Investigates that the motivation behind this practice was to boost garda productivity by enabling more summonses to be served, thereby improving the station's performance statistics.
'Court decisions could be vulnerable to challenge'
In a 2022 letter to the whistleblower, GSOC noted that the protected disclosure indicated that "statutory declarations were procured improperly and were, as a consequence, invalid."
"The consequence of these allegations, if true, is that decisions made by a Court based on their acceptance of the Statutory Declaration could be vulnerable to challenge," GSOC added.
GSOC also told the whistleblower that it had obtained evidence from An Post and the Courts Service that corroborated the allegations made in the protected disclosure.
According to GSOC, the Peace Commissioner confirmed the existence of the facsimile stamp and said that it was "left in the garda station on one occasion for a brief period".
However, the Peace Commissioner denied that gardaí had uncontrolled access to it.
GSOC also told the whistleblower that it had "obtained evidence that the stamp was located in the garda station outside the control of the Peace Commissioner."
‘An obvious backlash’
The whistleblower told RTÉ Investigates they were unwilling to identify individual gardaí, as they felt this was a management issue at the station.
"By making a new statement implicating the individual garda members, I would also waive my anonymity under Protected Disclosure Legislation. I refused to do so as I feared for the obvious backlash that would inevitably occur," the whistleblower said.
GSOC informed the whistleblower that it could not make further progress in its investigation without this witness statement.
However, GSOC stated it would "provide correspondence to the Garda Commissioner for his attention so that he may consider the appropriate internal governance response required."
GSOC also said that it had brought the matter to the attention of the Minister for Justice but would withhold the specific location of the allegations to protect the whistleblower's identity.
‘Deeply shocked’
When asked by RTÉ Investigates what he would do if faced with this practice as a serving judge, Michael Pattwell, who is now retired, said he would notify the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Attorney General, and the Minister for Justice, and would ask the DPP to examine if this constituted a contempt of court or a violation of District Court rules.
He also agreed with GSOC’s claim that certain court decisions could now be vulnerable to challenge because of this practice.
"Say the offence was drink or drug driving," Mr Pattwell explained. "There are consequential disqualifications which are really serious.
"I believe that as the matter was not properly before the court in accordance with the rules of the court, no orders should be made, and any order would be unenforceable."
‘Gardaí are reminded of the correct legal process’
Separately, GSOC and the Department of Justice told RTÉ Investigates that they could not confirm or deny the existence of any protected disclosure.
The Department said that "this policy is in place to preserve the statutory guarantee of anonymity under the Protected Disclosures Act," while GSOC claimed that it "cannot disclose or discuss any operational or other matters that may arise from disclosures it may receive."
Meanwhile, the Garda Press Office confirmed to RTÉ Investigates that GSOC had raised a "potential issue with An Garda Síochána in relation to the issuing of summons in one station in the east of the country."
It said that the local Superintendent conducted an audit and put in place "measures to mitigate the risk of such a matter occurring," adding that there had been no further reports of such matters occurring since then.
"Neither the GSOC investigation nor the internal Garda audit identified any wrongdoing by any individual Garda in relation to this matter," the Garda Press Office said.
The Garda Press Office also explained that in June 2022, "an instruction was issued to senior managers that all Gardaí should be reminded of the correct legal processes for the signing of Statutory Declarations."
