A judge at Dublin District Court has urged a participant in "boy racer meetings" in Dublin to help change attitudes among his peers about speeding.
Judge Bridget Reilly yesterday told apprentice panel-beater Michael Mulvaney (22) to lead others in a change of attitude to speeding by young people.
"It would be wonderful if a young man like him showed leadership to get a movement going whereby there was a change of attitude," she said.
Mulvaney, O'Devaney Gardens, Dublin, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving during once-regular meetings of "boy racers" at the Western Industrial Estate, Naas Road.
He raced his Toyota Levin, a souped-up imported version of the Corolla, against other similar cars along a road in the industrial estate before he was stopped by gardaí.
The meetings, which usually took place on Sundays, had an audience of onlookers, the court heard. Following a Garda operation, they had been stopped.
The location had been featured in an item about boy racers on RTÉ's Late Late Show last March.
Mulvaney's lawyer said at the time his client had been involved in a painful break-up with his pregnant girlfriend and had channelled his frustrations into those meetings "as a form of release".
He had since taken steps to deal with his problems and had gotten rid of the fast car for a "more sensible" Volkswagen Bora. He earned €400 a week, €250 of which went in rent to his mother and support for his child.
He had previous convictions for driving with bald tyres on his car and no silencer, and for failing to comply with the National Car Test regulations.
Judge Reilly adjourned sentence to January for him to furnish proof that he had paid fines against him for those previous offences, and to show how much of his earnings actually went to his family.
Mulvaney "knew the scene" about why young men got involved in these races, the judge said. If he showed some initiative in encouraging others he knew to think about what they were doing, she would take that into account when passing sentence.