District Court judge says dishonest drivers evading justice through false registration

Judge William Hamill, addressing the Law Reform Commission, said drivers were able to provide false information to the Vehicle Registration Office (VRO) and evade any subsequent warrants.

Motorists are typically required to provide the VRO with their name, contact address, date of birth and gender - but they are not required to corroborate the information they provide.

Judge Hamill told the commission that there were 211,715 unexecuted warrants issued for non-payment of fines currently logged in the Courts Service of Ireland’s IT system.

He said: “In all these matters the honest are dealt with and the dishonest, or at least the very careless, usually escape.

“A person can register and re-tax a motor vehicle without proof of identity or any evidence of any connection with the address provided.”

He went on to describe the current situation as “a waste of time and money” with gardaí, the Courts Service and the judiciary forced to spend time on “prosecutions which, on many occasions, are predestined to fail”.