‘God help Ireland’ – Judge calls for teen to be deported
‘Don’t know why he’s not deported’
A JUDGE yesterday declared ‘God help Ireland’ after hearing that the Department of Justice had no plans to deport a Brazilian teenager who has been living here illegally and who he convicted of driving offences.
Judge Patrick Durcan made his comment at Ennis District Court before sentencing 18year-old Joao Victor Da Silva Mota of The Grove, Gort to four months in prison, fining him €2,250 and banning him from driving for four years for a spate of road offences on March 9 at Main Street, Corofin, Co. Clare.
The offences concerned related to Da Silva Mota having a false driving licence, no driving licence, no insurance, showing a false date of birth and failing to produce a valid passport.
In his comments in court, Judge Durcan referred to a terrorist shooting dead of a policeman in Paris on Thursday night and he said: ‘The day is gone where people think they can float around the country with false documents.’ Garda Séamus Gleeson told the court that after being found with a false Portuguese driver’s licence, Da Silva Mota’s case had been referred by local Garda immigration to the Department of Justice but there was no move to deport the man.
Garda Gleeson said that at the time of his arrest, Da Silva Mota was here illegally.
After hearing that the Department of Justice had made no move to deport the man, Judge Durcan said: ‘God help Ireland.’
He said: ‘Someone who comes here from outside and obtains a false driving licence should be deported but the people who run the Department of Justice disagree.’ Judge Durcan added: ‘I just don’t understand the attitude of the Department of Justice in relation to people who come in here on the basis of false ID documents; who parade around the country on the basis of false documents – that is a false driving licence and fly around without insurance – that such persons are not deported.’
Solicitor for Da Silva Mota, Daragh Hassett, said that his client had made moves to regular- ise this status here and asked that Judge Durcan not jail him.
Mr Hassett said that his client purchased the false driving licence from a friend and did pay for insurance. Da Silva Mota pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and co-operated fully once he saw the ‘whites of Garda Gleeson’s eyes’, Mr Hassett said.
He remarked that his client took bad advice at the time.
Da Silva Mota was later freed on bail after meeting bond conditions to appeal the jail term, fines and driving ban to the circuit court.