A JUDGE has imposed fines and costs of €5,700 on independent tourist coach operator, Paddywagon for operating an unauthorised coach service to the country’s most popular natural tourist attraction, the Cliffs of Moher.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Adrian Harris imposed a fine of €3,000 and costs of €2,700 on Paddywagon Ltd over operating the unauthorised coach service from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher on April 15th of this year.
Last year, the Cliffs of Moher attracted 1.5m visitors and 41 percent arrived via coach.
Paddywagon Ltd was detected operating the unlicensed coach service after two authorised officers from the National Transport Authority (NTA) posing as tourists boarded the booked service outside the five star Merrion Hotel in Dublin on the morning of April 15th.
On behalf of the NTA, solicitor, George Maguire told Judge Harris that there were aggravating factors in the case and asked that the judge impose the maximum €5,000 fine allowed for such an offence in the district court.
Mr Maguire said that the offence Paddywagon has pleaded guilty to is the exact same offence that Paddywagon was convicted of in the same court for the same route only 12 months previous.
Mr Maguire said that in court 12 months ago, Paddywagon had sought and was given forbearance of the court over the initial offence.
Mr Maguire said that another aggravating factor is that only 24 hours before court Paddywagon continued to advertise online on essentially the same website, Elegant Irish Tours service to the Cliffs of Moher.
Mr Maguire said that the NTA has issued 15 warning letters to Paddywagon over the continuation of the service.
Mr Maguire said an authorised officer on April 13th had booked online two tickets for April 15th on the Elegant Irish Tours website.
Mr Maguire said that there were seven passengers on the coach service from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher and they arrived at the Cliffs of Mother at 4.30pm and arrived back at Kevin Street, Dublin at 8.30pm.
He said that is a distance of 500km and a journey of 12 hours.
He said: “This journey requires to be licenced and an application had been made by Paddywagon but has never been approved. The driver in question was cautioned on the day and no licence was forthcoming.”
Mr Maguire said that the offence was admitted under the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009.
Solicitor, John Casey for Paddywagon Ltd told the court that he had no issue over the costs estimate.
He said that the offence is admitted and Paddywagon has an application for the service with the NTA but the licence application has not been approved yet.
Mr Casey said that it is a hugely regulated business.
Imposing the €3,000 fine, Judge Harris said that it is the second offence in 12 months and also ordered Paddywagon to also pay €2,700 in costs.
The most recently filed accounts for Paddywagon Ltd to the end of October 2024 show that it recorded post tax profits of €771,519.
The firm had accumulated profits of €3.08m while cash funds increased slightly to €2.27n. The firm employed 58 people.
