New regulations in force against metal robbers

As written formerly, the governing party Fidesz had proposed an amandment for decreasing the number of metal thefts and catching the criminals. From the 1st of March, the finished and passed regulation is in force.

As part of this, there would be some type of metal components highlighted (labeled with the code FAJ),  ie. the embededd rail lines, man-hole covers, overhead and other industrial cables.

From now, if the person is not a registered metal trader (like transport companies – eg. MÁV, BKK, Volán) and wants to sell such suspicious items on the metal yard, he needs to have a permission document (for selling the constituents)  from the NAV (National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary) itself.

This regulation was more than long-awaited, because several public transport-killing and fatal accidents had happened because of underprivileged people who used to make a living from stealing and selling these instead of looking for a job.

Once happened, that the complete underframe of a train engine was stolen at daytime (which was standing alone on an extrernal platform in East) watched by the platform official himself – he thought they had been repair mechanincs and didn’t ask them for permission. Anyway, it would not had been his job because MAV’s (Hungarian State Railways) service and traffic control establishments are independent profit companies. Unfortunately, the robbers managed to sell the iron materials (for a significant amount of money because of their weight). The responibility of the metal yard traders are also not negligible.

On another occasion, 2 people died in a car-train crash accident near Gödöllő which happened because some valuable components of the rail barierr had been stolen.

Several overhead cable robberies were also recorded replacement of which caused long delays on rail lines.

Owing to the new rules, the followings are in force:

• Happenings like written above, which endanger the public transport – so the public itself, will be qualified as terrorism act which will be penaltied seriously.
• If the metal yard trader ignore checking the permission of selling the FAJ-labeled items, both him and the salesmen will be fined, and even his market may be closed.
• Private individuals can only keep not more than 3 m3 metal waste at home.

Although the law seems clear, applying and executing it and the judging process will be highly controversial and unique for every cases; it will more likely based on judicial customs.

-KK-

Source: http://dailynewshungary.com/