JAMES MAX IS a tv and radio broadcaster in the UK. He writes a regular column for the Financial Times.
Recently he complained about the maintenance bill for his 50-year-old Rolls Royce. He described the model as a “Corniche convertible in silver mink”. When he bought it several years ago it cost “£60,000 with just over 75,000 miles on the clock”.
It’s had its problems over the years.
On one occasion “the brakes locked, engulfing the car in clouds of smoke with a danger of imminent combustion”. On another “it barfed a load of fluids all over the drive rendering it inoperable”.
Happily, it has a healthy appetite. “It wont just drink petrol. It guzzles the stuff. You’d be lucky to see 20mpg”.
His recent service invoice cost an eye-watering “£3,689.31”.
Some might argue he should dump the thing. After all it costs the equivalent of a small country’s GDP to run.
If he was interested in dumping it, then he could do worse than transport it to Ireland and drive it at an ungodly speed down the motorway. If he was lucky, the police might get hold of him, seize his ancient tank and take it to the crusher.
Yes, that’s right. The police can now turn your car into a little steel cube.
IT DOESN'T MEAN that if you drive down the road and some officer is unimpressed with your driving that they can kick you out of your car and take it to the crusher.
Steady on. This isn't North Korea after all.
"if you allow someone to drive your
old ‘pride and joy’ while you’re on the cruise of a lifetime,
you might come back to an empty driveway"
The government introduced a new law last year.
It’s called the Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023.
Given that there’s a new road traffic law every other year, you could be forgiven for not giving it too much attention.
After all, if there’s one thing any government likes to do it’s creating new laws. These are less to do with filling a need and more to do with appearing to be “tough on crime”.
That’s imperative. You’ve got to be tough on crime. Because if you’re not tough you might be seen as ‘soft’. And nobody wants to be labelled soft.
And we can’t have that.
Still, any law that allows a Garda to seize your vehicle and possibly destroy it deserves attention.
Section 109A of the new Act deals with “Powers of Garda Síochána in relation to dangerous driving”.
That’s a clue. If you’re driving your vehicle dangerously, this section of the new road traffic act is for you.
It states that where a Garda “reasonably believes” that your vehicle “is being driven or used…in any place in which it is, or is likely to be, dangerous to any persons present…or persons who might reasonably be expected to be present”, the Garda can demand that you:
· Stop, get out and leave the vehicle,
· Give your name and address,
· Leave the place.
Most importantly, they can “seize, remove, store and subsequently dispose of [your] vehicle”.
The Gardai can also enter onto your property to do these things.
And they don’t need a search warrant.
Anyone who obstructs or impedes the Gardai in their duty here can be fined or jailed -or both- for up to 6 months.
You read that right.
If your vehicle is seized it can’t be destroyed for 2 months.
That's a relief I hear you say.
If it is seized, you can apply to the local District Court judge for an order to release it.
If the court hears evidence and is happy that:
Somebody drove your vehicle without your permission or,
You promise not to drive it -or allow anyone else to drive it- dangerously in any place, then the court will direct the return of your vehicle.
Key point here is that the court is “satisfied [by the] evidence [put forward in court] by [you]”.
If the court isn’t ‘satisfied’, the crusher beckons.
In deciding whether or not to return your vehicle the judge can take into consideration your behaviour at the time the vehicle was seized and whether or not any vehicle of yours has been seized before.
So behave yourself.
If the court refuses to return your vehicle it isn’t possible to appeal this decision, except on a point of law in the High Court.
And if you have to go to the High Court to get your car back, you better hope your car is worth more than the legal costs.
If no application is made to have the vehicle returned or if your application to have your vehicle returned is rejected, then the Garda Commissioner “may dispose of the seized vehicle in any manner he or she sees fit”.
"if you have to go to the High Court
to get your car back,
you better hope your car
is worth more than the legal costs"
Some things to think about.
This law was probably created with a 'noble intent'.
To be fair to the government they saw an issue and decided to deal with it.
What was the issue?
Well, probably not your brand-new BMW 5 Series.
Or any vintage car either to be fair.
The government probably had its sight set on far less glamorous vehicles.
Some of these vehicles are known as “company cars”.
A “company car” is a term used by the police to refer to cars that are economically worthless, of no value and are frequently driven by uninsured drivers on roads and public places e.g. green areas of housing estates.
These activities frequently involve numerous youths becoming involved in incidents where cars are driven dangerously.
So, seizing those cars and taking them out of commission is a good idea.
But in the real world this causes problems for the police.
If you’ve ever seized a worthless car, what do you do with it?
Well, you take it away.
How?
You call a tow-truck of course.
You then wait at the scene until the tow-truck arrives and then you take it to the police pound.
But the pound is almost always overfull with worthless cars.
Nobody wants them and they remain unclaimed because the cost of releasing them exceeds the value of the car.
And even if the person paid the costs of recovering the car, the person who had driven probably doesn’t have insurance in the first place.
Even if they had insurance, they’re probably not the registered owner of the vehicle. A lot of old cars are driven by people who are not the registered owner.
These old cars were sold for cash to third parties who never registered them in their own name.
Often its hard to find who the true owner of these cars are because they’ve been sold two or three times without ever having been registered by the owner.
So, police pounds fill and fill.
And if you as a police officer take a company car into the police pound, you might get an ‘earful’ from the sergeant in charge of the pound who now has to find a home for this wreck.
After all, what are they supposed to do with it?
This is the real world.
________________
In the vast majority of road traffic offences, the offence has to be committed while you were driving in a public place e.g. a road, street, carpark etc.
This new Act does not require that.
It can be anywhere.
This is another clue in trying to figure out what the government were aiming at.
They’re targeting very bad driving that doesn’t necessarily take place just on roads.
Who would this likely be?
Ever see those individuals who drive mopeds, cheap motorbikes or old bangers in fields?
Some of these people cause a real nuisance to neighbours by driving around fields at high speeds.
The noise they create for starters is significant.
Then there's the danger to other people -usually young people- who might find the whole spectacle exciting.
You've got young, untrained drivers flying around grassy areas at high speeds.
Disaster is inevitable.
The new Act allows the police to destroy cars after 2 months.
Presumably, if you don’t apply to the court to get your car back within 2 months of it being seized, it will be destroyed.
_____________
Despite the crippling costs Mr. Max still loves his Rolls.
The gentleman is not for dumping it.
"The driving experience is sublime' he writes, 'absorbing the many potholes in our roads without a wince. This is to be expected since it was manufactured in the 1970's, the last time the country was in a total mess".
There are other silver linings.
Despite having to budget "between £3000-£5000 a year for servicing...insurance is just a few hundred pounds a year".
Still, one must be cautious.
If he does decide to take his silver mink Rolls over here for a while and asks someone to look after it while he's on the cruise of a lifetime, he might come back to an empty driveway.
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