The worker, in her 30s, is suspected of deleting a summons record from the Courts Service computer system.

The DPP has directed gardai to prosecute her and it is understood she will be charged with perverting the course of justice.

A friend of the staff member was arrested for drink driving and was summonsed by gardai. It is thought that he asked her to make the charge 'go away' and that she subsequently deleted the record of the impending prosecution. An internal alarm system was then triggered and officials contacted gardai.

The incident took place in November 2005; the investigation was completed several months ago and a file forwarded to the DPP.

The woman was arrested at the time of the incident, as was the man who was due in court.

The case against him subsequently went ahead, and the woman was suspended from her job.

Gardai have been probing the employee's background and scrutinised her work history.

They determined that she had not previously attempted to pull any other summonses. It is not thought that she was paid for deleting the charge and did it purely as a once-off favour.

All summonses going through the Courts Service are now processed electronically and a system is in place to detect if individual charges are deleted. Senior staff are immediately informed and a probe takes place to determine the reason for the records being altered.

The recording of summonses was computerised over the last few years to tighten up the system which was often abused in the past. Gardai make applications for summonses each month. The paperwork is then sent to the Courts Service and entered on a central system.