Crime victims to benefit from poor box changes

A FUND to help victims of crime has been recommended by a Law Reform Commission (LRC) report. The new financial reparation fund would replace the poor box system now in use.

A draft bill, published with the LRC report, sets out how the proposed financial reparation fund would be applied: payments to the fund would be made by people who had a charge against them dismissed either because it was trivial or because of their personal circumstances.

Currently, where a person is charged with a minor offence they may be asked to make a contribution to the poor box to avoid a criminal conviction.