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PEOPLE ARE NEVER more industrious than when they’re trying to get out of paying tax.
As if confirmation were needed, the Gardaí announced this afternoon that 18 luxury cars have been impounded on suspicion that their owners have been under-declaring the cubic capacity (cc) of their engines.
Annual motor tax rates range from under €200 for a car less than 1,000cc to almost €2,000 for larger vehicles over 3,000cc (an electric car will set you back only €120 yearly).
The Gardaí were unable to confirm to TheJournal.ie the extent of the scam (i.e. whether or not extremely large cars were being passed off as classic Minis).
However, all 18 of the cars seized are BMWs so theoretically the fraud could total a maximum of about €30,000.
The cars were seized over the last 4 days, while one man has been arrested and charged with fraud and theft.
He’ll go before the Criminal Courts of Justice on 21 April.
While all of the cars seized in this phase of the operation are BMWs, it seems that many more luxury cars from different manufacturers are involved in the scam.
The Gardaí have officially appealed to those involved “to immediately regularise the situation with their local tax office, insurance company and An Garda Síochána”.
The correct capacity of a car should be included on the vehicle’s licensing certificate which is typically included when a car changes hands.
Gardaí-sanctioned advice on buying a new car can be found here.
Parents responsibility to monitor the children not apples full stop
Actually it’s sharp practice and not that simple. I shall attempt to explain why.
If you buy the kids a free game app and are unaware of “in app purchases” as a concept then they can run up a bill while just playing the game within 15 mins of downloading app (15 mins of not prompting for password is the default setting but it can be changed to every time a password if you know how) (also you can inhibit in app purchases if you know how).
Some games have the in app purchase on the game screen beside the game functions, others encourage purchase of energy crystals, diamonds etc. so if your a normal joe it looks like your kid is just playing a game and you will not find out until your iTunes invoice arrives or cred card bill.
Alternatively they could read a book or kick a football. You give a kid your €400 iPhone and tell them to “go play”, well, tough luck.
I enjoy reading the Journal, the short snappy articles are easy to read and cover all sorts of interesting topics, however, please read the articles before posting them! The amount of typos and mistakes in the articles is mind boggling! For such short pieces, surely a quick proof read would be quick to do. I’m aware that if there are any mistakes with this comment it will be ironic, especially if I failed to use the word ironic properly, which I cannot guarantee, but I’m not a journalist. Kind regards.
Neither are they
Em….shrewd tech savvy 5 year olds should not be under estimated
Parents are 100% to blame. Apple should not have to pay back a cent!
Allow me to introduce my friend settings, he’ll let you enable restrictions so your kids can’t buy apps on the hundreds of euro worth of technology you’re letting them use as a toy.
$35 million is very small change for apple
Gibbs…
More to the point.
This is the responsibility of parents and not Apple.
Nothing to do with this story but is anyone else experiencing problems with the journal app. Taking forever to load, frequently freezing and crashing, even typing this comment took an age as each key was delayed before the chosen letter appeared on screen. Perhaps it’s my phone but other sites don’t produce the same problems. Anyone had the same situation?
That’s a very expensive apple
Yeah …… And loads of our comments keep going missing too
David Mc ummm.. ! What phone / operating system are you on ? I have iOS 7 and it’s given me loads of problems , not just in the journal app but most other apps too
It’s Mc Shite Mia………
David Mc Shite.
Phone is Sony Experia E. It’s the cheapest smartphone Sony do and petformes pretty solidly for my needs.
I enjoy the journal but it’s becoming almost unusable lately.
Thanks for your response Mia.
Having the same problems sometimes David
I had no idea what an app was as a child, an apple was something I was made to eat sometimes & had no clue what an angry bird was although my friend once hit a crow off a telephone wire with a catapult……..the crow died & my mam turned into an angry bird lol :D
You think murdering an innocent creature for fun is hilarious!?
Apple refunded me over a year ago when my child accidentally upgraded and app she was only 3 at the time. Was totally blaming myself until my friend told me to ring,she had been refunded, they also told me how to change my settings so it wouldn’t happen again.
Why on earth would you allow a 3 yr old to play with your iPhone?
They don’t have enough toys????!!
Apple,
Rotten to the core….
Because???
My son bought all the apps on my phone >.>
All of them were free though!
Heh, was just kidding. He’s not allowed touch my phone with his track record for breaking stuff!
Not to mention your phone porn stash.
Hard to know who to blame, the parents should absolutely be more responsible but it’s disgraceful that some apps have in-app purchases worth up to €90 in some that I’ve seen. They specifically target children whose parents have no idea that it could be so simple to authorise hundreds of euro worth of purchases with a few taps. It’s hard to blame Apple but they could always do with the good publicity, marketing is their only strength after all.
Apple giving back to their sheep!
If they put an apple logo on an abacus their sheep wud run out to buy the next generation calculator
No but judging by your handle, if sony put their logo on an inflatable dartboard you would buy it! :D
It might not be much to the most valuable company in the world but they’d no need to do this. Fair play to Apple!
My 7 year old cousin ran up a bill of over €50 on her Dads phone. He nearly died when he saw his phone bill!
Why do “responsible” adults give their phones / iPads to their little darlings in the first place without ensuring some form of control in the first place. You do no need to use a credit card to purchase apps from the App store. iTunes vouchers are safer and limit your exposure when your kids are treating it like being let loose in a sweet shop. I think it would have been a more valuable lesson to the next generation if they had to pay for their actions. We are now at the stage when wrongdoing is always someone else’s fault.
have your say