No conviction for west Cork landlord who took away tenants car, dug a big hole and buried it.

on an emotional level,

rent arrears and holidaying in the USA. sounds like they were living beyond their means. any sympathy I had automatically transferred to the landlord.

on a practical level ,

It wasn't the worst crime and he'd no previous. has to pay her 1000e . a fair judgement

With the RTB judgement just shows that no matter how frustrated you are with a tenant and no matter what you’re owed, if you take the law into your own hands by locking them out of the house, you’ll pay a heavy price.

Eamon Ryan LOL

Where did I suggest it was his property?

 he had no say on what she should do with it.

Course he had, the vehicle was abandoned on his property.

What he should have done was move it onto public land and leave it there.

RTB specifically say that for their mediation service you do not need legal representation. So it’s odd that the judge overruled them on this. And to be fair, if I had nicked someone’s car, I’d be seeking legal advice. He probably went along solo so he could later throw his hands up and say he didn’t know what was going on.
As for the tenants living beyond their means, someone else could have paid for the holiday for them and had no knowledge of their rent situation.

RTB is a strange thing, you can sign a lease on a property and then not bother paying rent for years and leave a owner tens of thousands of euro out of pocket yet go on living in a property regardless. the years of delay and expense to get some one like that out falls on some one who did nothing wrong.

another symptom of weak leftist governments that we have had in Ireland for many years

You shouldn't bury cars either. Heavy metals? Fuel? Engine oil?

Should Mr. O'Sullivan, on his own admission, now be charged with both theft and illegal dumping for
1. dishonestly appropriating property without the consent of its owner and with the intention of depriving its owner of it.
2. disposing of the car in a hole in the ground in a field rather than bringing it to an Authorised Treatment Facility.

Important to note that in this case there isn't years of arrears. It appears to have been a couple of months at most,

https://www.rtb.ie/downloads/tribunal-report/TR1222-005872-DR1022-80404_Tribunal_Report.pdf

That is disputed. From the link;

The Appellant Landlord stated that the Tribunal had all the evidence before it and that on
the 5 September, 2022 the Respondent Tenants owed four months’ rent.

She
stated that when the Appellant Landlord texted her about the rent on the 5 September,
2022, only two months rent (July and August) had been due at that point, as the rent for
September was due on the 9th of the month. She said that she paid the rent for the
outstanding months and informed the Appellant Landlord that she would take care of
September’s rent on return from America. It was her evidence that she heard nothing further
from the Appellant Landlord and assumed that everything was fine

Also from tribunal report you'll note that the RTB made no finding re rent arrears.