A JUDGE HAS declared ‘God help Ireland’ after hearing that the Department of Justice has not made any moves to deport a Brazilian teenager who has been living here illegally.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan made his comment before jailing 18-year-old Joao Victor Da Silva Mota of The Grove, Gort for four months.

The judge also fined him €2,250 and banned him from driving for four years for a spate of road offences on 9 March at Main Street, Corofin, Co Clare.

The offences concerned related to De 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 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 Seamus Gleeson told the court that after being found with a false Portuguese driver’s licence, De Silva Mota’s case had been referred by local Garda immigration to the Department of Justice but there was no move by the Department to deport the man.

Gleeson said that at the time of his arrest, Da Silva Mota was here illegally.

After hearing that the Department of Justice has made no move to deport the man, Judge Durcan said:

God help Ireland.

Someone who comes here from outside and obtains a false driving licence should be deported but the people who run the Deptartment 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; fly around without insurance as it is based on falsehoods – that such persons are not deported.

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Appeal

Solicitor for De Silva Mota, Daragh Hassett said that his client has made moves to regularise this status here and asked that Judge Durcan not jail him.

Hassett said that his client purchased the false driving licence from a friend and did pay for insurance.

Hassett said that Da Silva Mota pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and co-operated fully once he saw the whites of Garda Gleeson’s eyes. Hassett said that his client took bad advice at the time.

Da Silva Mota was later freed on bail after entering meeting bond conditions to appeal the jail term, fines and driving ban to the circuit court.

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