Flashers caught in check
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II by Brendan Nolan The practice of flashing headlights to signal to other drivers came under fire in Dublin last week.
Eight drivers were charged with obstructing the Garda in Speed checks on the M4 outside Dublin after they had flashed to drivers coming the other way to warn them of the check.
They were charged under the Criminal Justice Public Order Act, not under any traffic control laws.
Five were fined 2300 but the other three were allowed to make donations of 2500 to the court "poor box" in order to avoid a conviction being registered against them.
The judge said anyone con victed of interfering with Garda operations in future could face prison sentences, as well as a fine. Convictions under the act are criminal convictions and not motoring offerces. Such a conviction an a driver's record would be taken into account in the renewal of an Operators' Licence or in the granting of visas for travel in other countries.
• More contraband cigarettes have been seized at Dublin Port in what is now a continuing surveillance operation by Irish customs.
Customs have been using a system of profiling in the port where they study a load's origins, route used, and other manifest details, to look for
anything that appears out of the ordinary.
This time, Customs seized four million cigarettes valued at £750,000 which arrived by container from Rotterdam, but which had originated in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The cigarettes—Superkings, Regal, Rothmans, and Benson and Hedges brands—were concealed in a consignment of floorboards, and were on their way to the UK market.
The seizure is a result of the continuing EU-wide Customs operation targeting the illicit cigarette trade. So far this year Irish Customs has seized and destroyed 20 million smuggled cigarettes and confiscated a number of trucks.