A judge said it was incomprehensible that a person could receive a year in prison for possession of a penknife with a blade the size of a fingernail, but there was nothing stopping someone buying a car for €100 and taking it out on the road.
Judge James Faughnan told Ballinasloe District Court that a €100 car was a lot more lethal than a small pocket knife but someone could go down the road and buy a car without producing any identification whatsoever.
He was referring in particular to the obtaining of so-called “company cars” for little or nothing. These vehicles are often highly unroadworthy and many are modified illegally.
He made his comments when dealing with a number of ‘boy-racer’ type cases before him at Court. Dealing with one case he pondered if any research had been done into whether boy racers inevitably progress to adult racers.
The Judge suggested that with the developments in automatic recognition technology employed by the Gardaí, it should not be beyond the bounds of those in authority to develop a system which made the production of ID when purchasing a vehicle compulsory.
“You should have to produce identification to buy a car, a car can be lethal,” he added.
