Kerry woman gets eFlow fines despite never driving on M50
Requesting Letters Sheila O’sullivan Last From €36 Killarney Total Friday Received Two In
A Kerry woman was shocked to get multiple eFlow fines for non-payment of tolls on the M50 despite having never driven on the Dublin motorway in her life.
Sheila O’Sullivan from Killarney received two letters last Friday requesting €36 in total. The letters contained a photograph of a car, which closely resembled Ms O’Sullivan’s vehicle, and detailed five separate journeys taken on the M50.
“I've actually never driven the M50,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
“My car would have been parked at home in Killarney. I knew obviously it wasn't me, so I rang eFlow services, and they asked me to confirm my car and what colour it was, but because the picture was taken at night time, it was hard to see the colour of the car,” she said.
It is believed that criminals trawl car dealer sites to find registrations matching their car type before fixing fake number plates and using the vehicle to carry out burglaries and other activities.
Upon contacting gardaí, Ms O’Sullivan made a statement, which was followed up by gardaí with eFlow services.
Ms O’Sullivan, who first raised the case on Radio Kerry, said steps should be taken by car dealers to blur out part of the car registration when selling them online, to discourage criminals from taking advantage.
“It’s a pity that garages have all the registration plates up, so it’s very easy if you’re doing a burglary, and you have an old Ford Focus, you’ll think ‘I’m going to find a plate that will match that’.
"That’s obviously what they did; they had a Kia and they just changed the plates on it."
Ms O’Sullivan said the car resembled her own, down to the shape of the lights, which were almost “practically identical”.
“I said to my husband, 'imagine if it was used in a burglary or hit-and-run',” Ms O’Sullivan said. “If it’s registered to you, you’re responsible for it.”
A Garda spokesperson said that gardaí "did receive a report of alleged fraudulent activity in October 2024". Investigations are ongoing at this time, they said.
A spokesperson for eFlow said that if a customer claims they were not on the motorway at the time of the recorded fine, the company reviews these on a “case-by-case" basis.
Generally, the recorded images are flagged and put into the red category to be critically reviewed by a senior agent.
The agent will then review the two images, front and back shots of the vehicle, to ensure the registration plate matches the vehicle make, model and colour on file. The person who owns the vehicle must contact eFlow directly in order to review and investigate the claim, they added.
“If we feel it is suspicious, we recommend the individual makes contact with gardaí to create a pulse file,” the spokesperson added. “We recognise it can be quite scary receiving a letter from us, but we are here to help and advise,” they added.