JUDGE Eugene O’Kelly has warned that the courts are not a place for debt collection. The district court judge’s comments came as he began to hear a case where a woman had her home badly damaged by teenage vandals. He said that the Gardai were not to be used as debt collectors if charges were brought against accused persons. Judge O’Kelly said that the courts were not a place to extort payment for damage. The comments came to light as Judge O’Kelly sat to hear evidence against a 17-year-old charged with criminal damage to a house where the front door and windows were broken.
However, the chief prosecution witness took to the stand and said that she was not going to give evidence against her neighbour as she was “good friends” with the mother of the teenager and, “he said he would pay for the damage”.
Judge O’Kelly said, “are you telling the court that you will not give evidence against the accused?”
The witness said that she just wanted the damage paid for.
Judge O’Kelly questioned if the witness was using the gardai as a debt collection agency. “You can’t get the gardai to bring charges against someone just in the hope they pay for the damage”.
The witness denied this and said she just wanted “to give the young fella a chance”.
The court heard that the case had been fully investigated by the gardai after the complaint was made and that it was “unacceptable” that the State had been put to great extent to bring the matter to court.
“I have no option but to strike out the matter”, Judge O’Kelly said and he warned the homeowner that “if he doesn’t pay, there is no point coming back to court”.
