Legal ‘poor box’ system: Risible at best

OUR legal system has many quaint and strange traditions but none moreso than the practise by judges to allow a guilty person to avoid a criminal conviction by ‘donating’ a sum of money to the court’s own ‘poor box.’

While the charities and causes that benefit from this obscure system would lament its passing, there is no real justification for retaining a practice that relies soley on the discretion of a judge as to who the money should go to.

According to the Courts Service, in the region of €1.3m was allocated in this fashion last year, a significant drop on 2014 but a substantial amount nonetheless.