2nd December 2011, 08:47 AM
Stuart Rathbone Wrote:If this example were to lead to jail time it would be a massive change in how the law is enacted, but I doubt this will happen.
Don't get me wrong, I too think it's unlikely that this case will end in jail time, and I'd be amazed if Mr Mr O'mahony was sentenced to the maximum term allowed by the law. The point I was making is that perhaps these laws would be taken more seriously if judges in both Britain and Ireland were more willing to apply the full weight of the law, and hand down a few stiff sentences. As you say, a canny developer may decide that it is cheaper to take a fine rather than pay for archaeological work, but would they be so keen to make that decision if the alternative was a few months in jail?
Stuart Rathbone Wrote:The other classic over in Ireland is when you are sent to do an assessment on a small development, say a few holiday homes or something, and you turn up to find they have already been completed! I have never heard of any sanctions being taken in those cases, but perhaps it does happen. I've lost count of how many times that I've made that phone call though, "Yeah hi, it's Stuart Rathbone here, yeah fine thanks. Um that thing I went to look at...yeah he's already built them...."
That doesn't just happen in Ireland, I've certainly turned up on site to find that the developer has already stripped the house footprints and dug the foundations etc, because they were 'just trying to be helpful'. I've also heard that in some of the more remote areas of Scotland, often the first thing the planning department knows about a new house is the retrospective application following construction, and that's only submitted because the builder wants to sell it on!
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum