Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014

Compliance with attachment order

15. (1) The appropriate court official shall cause the attachment order to be served on the employer to whom it is directed.

(2) The service of the attachment order may be effected by leaving the attachment order or a copy of it at the employer’s residence or place of business in the State or by sending the order or a copy of it, by registered pre-paid post, to that residence or place of business.

(3) The employer to whom the attachment order is directed shall comply with its terms, if it is served on him or her, but is not liable for non-compliance before 10 working days have elapsed since the service of the order.

(4) Where, at any time while the attachment order is in force, it comes to the attention of the employer to whom it is directed that the fined person’s earnings are, for whatever reason, insufficient to meet one or more than one deduction required to be made from those earnings in compliance with the order, the employer shall give notice in writing of that fact (including the circumstances which gave rise to that fact) to the court within 10 working days from the date that it comes to the employer’s attention that the fined person’s earnings are so insufficient.

(5) Where the employer to whom the attachment order is directed is not the fined person’s employer at the time when the service of the order is effected, the employer shall give notice of that fact to the court within 10 working days from the service of the order.

(6) Where, at any time while the attachment order is in force, the employer to whom it is directed ceases to be the fined person’s employer, the employer shall give notice in writing of that fact to the court within 10 working days from the date that the fined person ceases to be in his or her employment, and pay to the court any sum deducted from the fined person’s earnings in compliance with that order.

(7) The employer to whom the attachment order is directed shall give to the fined person a statement in writing of the total amount of every deduction made from the person’s earnings in compliance with the order.

(8) The employer to whom the attachment order is directed who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with the terms of the order shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months, or both.