Judge trashes council’s prosecution of man over box left at bring-bank

IN what he described as one of the worst cases of overzealous prosecutions he had ever seen, a judge has ordered a county council to pay €750 to its local Tidy Towns committee.

Westmeath County Council had prosecuted 44-year-old Bernard Byrne for littering after he left a shoe-size box at a bring-bank.

The case, at Mullingar District Court, was taken against Mr Byrne as he was the registered owner of the vehicle seen, but it was his wife and son who were at the bring-bank.

After viewing pictures of Bernard Byrne’s wife and their son “carefully selecting” the right bin for each of their large amount of bottles, Judge Seamus Hughes said they should have been commended for their meticulous recycling on April 18 in Kinnegad.

The family was seen putting their basket into the car, but the judge said the proportionate response after they left a box on top of one of the bins would have been to write to them, reminding them to kindly not leave boxes behind.

He described the decision to prosecute Mr Byrne as typical of a civil service with “no appreciation of public relations”.

The judge said there was no proportionality in the case and that he could not convict Mr Byrne.

Instead he penalised the council.

The judge said it was the worst case of zealous prosecution he had seen as either a solicitor or judge and showed the council’s “jackboot tactics” for what was “in theory” an offence.

Vicky McCarthy, solicitor for the council, said despite the presence of stickers reminding people not to leave boxes and bags, when one person leaves something, others follow and a lot of rubbish builds up. She said sometimes this blows onto the road and creates litter.

Judge Hughes questioned the need for the prosecution when it was clear the Byrnes had been making a great effort. “Has this country got to the stage that public servants have so little to do? Extremely overzealous prosecution policies are being pursued here,” he said.

“[Councils] serve the taxpayers and are in a very privileged position compared to the community where people are out of their minds with financial stress.”

Judge Hughes said the proportionate response for him was to ask the council to make the donation to the Tidy Towns committee within a month.

He said if he could have awarded costs to Mr Byrne, he would have.