Jail terms for petrol non-payers, judge warns

A DISTRICT judge has warned motorists who might be tempted to drive off without paying for petrol that he regards it as a mean and miserable offence and he will jail them for it.

That was the warning from Judge Con O’Leary yesterday at Cork District Court as he remarked that he had noticed the prevalence of the offence over the past two years.

“These offences have arrived out of nowhere in the last two years. They are a very mean and miserable sort of offence committed by quite a large number of people,” the judge said.