Police could seize cars driven by minors

POLICE spokesman Demetris Demetriou yesterday confirmed plans for a bill that would allow police to confiscate and auction off vehicles illegally driven by minors.

Demetriou said the bill, which has been put to the House of Representatives and has already been approved by the Road Safety Council, aims to clamp down on the increasing number of traffic accidents and road deaths involving youngsters.

“If passed, this new law will allow police to confiscate the vehicle initially and then to auction it off in cases of repeat offenders,” he told the Sunday Mail.

Demetriou explained minors very often continued to drive cars and mopeds despite having been already caught by the police.

“This way, they won’t be given back the vehicles,” he said.

According to traffic police, the involvement of minors in traffic accidents is very high and in some cases lives have been lost.

As the law stands today, only the owner of the vehicle is held criminally responsible when a minor is caught driving it. However, a number of youngsters persist on taking the vehicles irrespective of whether they have their parents’ consent or not.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.