High Court frees pensioner jailed for not paying €5,000 debt

A pensioner jailed over his failure to pay court-ordered instalments on a €5,000 judgment debt has been freed by the High Court.

After the man’s release, the Free Legal Advice Centres, which took proceedings on his behalf, said his case underlined “major failings” in debt enforcement law in the State.

The man was arrested on March 21st by order of the District Court and jailed over not meeting the repayment instalments.

Described as having significant health issues, he had argued he was unable to meet the instalments of €500 monthly which he was previously ordered to pay to meet the judgment debt, obtained by a law firm arising from family law proceedings.

His only income was said to be his old age pension.

Mountjoy

He spent two nights in Mountjoy Prison before being freed on bail last week following an application by his lawyer Micheal P. O’Higgins SC to the High Court.

When the case returned before the High Court this week, the State indicated, having obtained a recording of the District Court proceedings, it was not opposing his release. Ms Justice Mary Faherty directed the man’s unconditional release.

In seeking his release, his lawyers argued the presiding judge at the District Court had not applied two safeguards required under legislation when a person faces jail for failure to meet the terms of an instalment order.

Those required that legal aid must be offered to the debtor and no jailing order be made unless the court is satisfied the creditor has shown beyond reasonable doubt the debtor failed to pay due to their “wilful refusal or culpable neglect”.

It was argued the warrant for his imprisonment signed by the District Court judge recorded the two safeguards were adhered to when, it was submitted, an audio recording of the proceedings confirmed that they were not.

Short hearing

The entire hearing in the District Court, resulting in the man’s imprisonment, took no more than three minutes, they said.

In a statement following the man’s release, FLAC said legislation passed in 2015 which should have removed all possibilities of a person being imprisoned on foot of a debt has not been commenced by the Minister for Justice.

FLAC chief executive Eilis Barry called on the Minister to bring the Civil Debt (Procedures) Act 2015 into effect as a matter of urgency, stressing “the government must ensure that this does not happen to anyone else.”

The Department of Justice said the Civil Debt (Procedures) Act 2015 would be commenced “once the drafting of the relevant rules of court had concluded and once the necessary arrangements had been put in place in the Department of Social Protection in respect of deductions from social welfare payments”.