Garda spent two years searching for a criminal who didn’t even exist

The serial offender collected dozens of speeding tickets across the country.

The Polish driver crossed the country, stacking up numerous speeding fines and parking tickets, but somehow managed to avoid the law.

Due to the driver giving a different address each time he was caught, by June 2007 there were over 50 entries in the Garda Pulse system under his name, Prawo Jazdy, but not a single conviction.

In the end, one vital clue led to his identity.

It wasn't the databases or Interpol that cracked the case, but the pages of a Polish-English dictionary.

Prawo jazdy means driving licence in Polish.

Yup, that's right.

An officer from the Garda traffic division revealed that members inspecting Polish licences had been documenting Prawo Jazdy as the licence holder’s name.

The 2007 letter from the officer read: “Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence.

“Having noticed this I decided to check on Pulse and see how many members have made this mistake. It is quiet [sic] embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."

The Garda explained how he could also be found on the Fixed Charge Processing System.

"This mistake needs to be rectified immediately and a memo sent to the members concerned. I also think that Garda Information Service Centre [in] Castlebar should be notified and some kind of alert put on these two words.”

The Polish license is a pink, credit card-sized licence with an EU flag and the words Prawo Jazdy in the top right corner.

To be fair, the license holder’s name and personal details are quite small.

The Garda added that it was unclear whether the confusion was due to the licences being misread, or if officers had been misled by their holders.

A notice was sent to all Garda stations alerting them of the error.