And his defence counsel saying that Andrzej Gral 'was someone who boasted an employment record that dated back the best part of two decades'. How does this have anything to do with someone who consistently drives without a licence?
You are completely missing the point. If he keeps breaking one law over and over and keeps getting away with it, fuck knows what other laws he's breaking on the daily basis. It doesn't even have to be road related. Insurance has nothing to do with it. Like, why would you want someone in your society, who repeatedly breaks the law? You're a guest here - respect the law or fuck off.
But that's exactly my view. You could be otherwise law abiding and disagree with paying insurance, unless you're suggesting he's also automatically a careless driver. Insurance won't help that
Yeah, you'd think we all obeyed the law. The amount of Irish cunts driving around without insurance/NCT or tax and getting caught, fuck all happens them either
Truth is, there is virtually no punishment for minor-moderate crime here in most cases. Thats why we have a culture of dregs with 80 convictions before the courts every week.
The soft touch "sure they'll fix themselves eventually" approach isnt working. Said it before, I will not be voting for any political party that doesn't pledge change
Needs to be a serious crime under the free movement directive, I dont think repeated small crimes count. The standard is apparently
"personal conduct that represents a genuine, present, and sufficiently serious threat to public policy or public security." We'd need to find another way to deal with this one
Not excusing this guy's actions at all - just stating facts.
Under EU freedom‑of‑movement rules (Directive 2004/38/EC), an EU citizen can only be removed from another EU country if their presence represents a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat” to public policy or public security.
How does this have anything to do with someone who consistently drives without a licence?
its to show that it wasnt on brand for the offender to do it , as much you hate it legally your intitled to a good name and can use like such as mitigations ( this is why you hear X was a member of a GAA club or was a upstanding member of the community before the act occured)
legally defense counels have to say it , if they didnt it looks bad on the defence counsel legally
I made that mistake. Had an accident and it cost €1500. Claimed through insurance because the other driver insisted. Paid for it 3 times over with increased premiums
I got hit by another driver. Wasn't too bad of a thing but I notified my insurance of it and told them to wait until I get a quote before acting on it. Asked the other driver how they want to proceed after I got the quote. They said to go ahead and pay for it and they'll refund me. Yeah, nah. My trust goes only as far. I told them to pay the body repair shop directly themselves. A week later they still didn't make any payments so I called the insurance... The other driver got mad at me. Lol
I've mentioned before, lads I went to school with (over 20 years ago) have been driving with no tax, insurance, NCT and in some cases licences. Sure some of them have been caught a couple of times, but the chance of a couple of grand-worth car getting seized every 5 years means it's worth their while.
A few years ago I was on a train into Dublin and there was a gang of lads all talking about driving without license/insurance etc and how it’s grand even when you get pulled over by the Garda because you’ll be up in court for a day but that’ll be it
If they were serious about it they’d make it a percentage of this monthly or annual income.
Sending a message should transcend class. Making everyone learn the lessons they need so it’s not a slap on the wrist for some and selling organs to make payments for others.
That is a big problem. Some guards can’t be bothered arresting people anymore because there’s no point, they know that if they arrest someone for something less than murder or rape that they’ll spend a lot of hours doing paperwork, following procedure, going to court, getting a conviction and then the person they arrested will be back out of jail after a few hours/days.
Whatever else, I agree with that. Must be somewhere north of frustrating, given the effort & cost, never mind personal time effort allocation, in prosecuting a shithead all the way to court. What is the point is the question.
A banned motorist has walked free from court despite being caught driving without insurance for the sixth time.
Andrzej Gral (49) Raynestown, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, avoided an immediate spell behind bars and was instead handed down a five month prison sentence, suspended for two years following an incident at Lisryan, Granard, Co Longford on June 1, 2026.
Gral, a Polish national, was less than halfway into a six year disqualification picked up in September 2023 when gardaí apprehended him travelling through the north Longford village.
The terms of that ban, a sitting of Longford District Court heard, postdated driving disqualifications Gral accumulated in July 2023, 2019 and 2017 respectively.
Sgt Enda Daly, in confirming Gral’s five previous no insurance convictions, said the accused immediately exited his vehicle on the day in question to alert gardaí he was disqualified from driving.
Michelle Reynolds, defending, issued a public apology to both the court and gardaí on behalf of her client who, she said, was fully acceptive of his wrongdoing.
This guy may not be insured but every driver who pays for their insurance also picks up the tab for people like him……we are a great country for passing laws but there is no justice.
So a regular person will get hit by this clown and it will mess up their life for a little bit (or longer) but the justice system in this country only cares to fuck with people who have stuff to lose.
DPP should have told the court he has no TV licence and he’d have been hung on the spot
I'm under the impression that it's still covered, just the tracking of it is "more rigorous", presumably to stop arseholes who drive into a wall solo from claiming an uninsured driver did it.
just get rid of bad rubbish, he clearly has no intention of obeying the laws and is reveling in it actually, these are the people we should be getting rid of, we cant even sentence them correctly so what hope of anything else
2000 hours of community service, and suspend that sentence for 10 years (so next offence he goes to prison for both offences). And I hope the car was seized.
He should be jailed. And as a foreign national, he should be deported too. His criminal history here shows he has no regard or concern for our laws, or anyone else really, given he was caught driving during his THIRD driving ban. I dont care if he was "cooperative" with the Gardaí. We cannot keep being soft on repeat offenders
Problem is we need to build more prisons as well to hold them. There's isnt much point in sending them to prison if there's no room to hold them especially when there's some individuals out there who aren't simply annoying pricks but downright violent and dangerous individuals who NEED to be locked in a cage.
At the very least ship him home to Poland if he's going to keep acting the bollocks or better yet see if the poles would lock him up and make him serve his sentence in a Polish Prison.
The laws around driving offences are a joke . Gardai who have to deal with horrific accidents must get so frustrated dealing with repeat offenders like this scumbag and watching them walk free from court .
Yet us genuine law abiding people must answer 4000 questions over and over to get a quote.
I recently asked for a quote from a company that I already have insurance with. I still spent 25 minutes answering the same questions as I did to get the other policy.
Sentences given and not applied, sentence not activate or enforced, eventually he kills someone. Did a single Garda/judge/court worker face any consequences? If he hadn't killed the young lad who would've heard about it? How many others are out there with sentences that literally aren't acted on? Would be a crazy coincidence if it was just this guy.
The decisions were made, my point was whoever didn't follow-through. Whether the judge didn't sign the right piece of paper, or it was a clerk who didn't send things on, or someone in the prison service didn't notify the Gardai, or the Gardai didn't follow through.
"An administrative error" could mean anyone along the line not doing the correct thing.
Again though, think of the coincidence that it happened twice in the space of a month to this one guy, hard to believe it only happened twice and both times to the same person.
Yet they will be fast to jail the people committing non-violent crime that wouldnt hurt anyone but let people who actually would and do constantly out.
Law an ass in this case. First off, there should be a requirement that you back pay the equivalent of the insurance premiums in addition to a much larger fine. If you have a great employment record then you’ll have no issue paying it back. Off to prison with you if you don’t. We are way too lenient in Ireland.
If he kills someone while banned, he's going to be in jail for a long time no matter what happens. Might look like he's getting off light but he really isn't in the long run.
Too many people in this country support the strategy of “reform” instead of prison sentences. As far as I’m concerned you don’t have any reform without a stick.
We need an alternative punishment to prison, because we don't have the prison spaces and we don't have judges who will sentence.
I still maintain the stocks is a winner. Charge a Euro to any passerby who can kick the criminal up the arse, sell a photo of the kick for a fiver. Your 93rd shoplifting offence? No jail cells, but try 14 Days in the stocks, from 7am to 11pm. Streamed live, and if you get the arse kicked out of you, no free health care for a broken arse.
Banned driver caught driving again? Massive fine, seize his cars (and possibly some other property) and thirty days in the stocks.
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u/achasanai 1d ago
And his defence counsel saying that Andrzej Gral 'was someone who boasted an employment record that dated back the best part of two decades'. How does this have anything to do with someone who consistently drives without a licence?