Two things:
- flying VFR, GPS is a secondary navigational aid, not a primary and usually you update databases one time a year at ARC maintenance,
- flying IFR you have to follow the 28 days update cycle.

So, if you rent an IFR certified plane for IFR RNAV flights, the database should be current, if you rent a VFR plane, be lucky for a moving map database less than 12 month old. If you feel it as too old at a VFR flight, you have to read GPS position and look at the paper chart ...

I suggest that one is far less likely to get lost or infringe by using GPS as a primary navigation aid.
Resorting to heading , time, wind drift and visual waypoint calculations is an interesting curiosity exercise in this day and age.

Oh dear, Mixture, seems use of the word 'humble' in context of bugsmashers pressed the wrong button, hey? Or are you merely comprehension-challenged, or maybe like TV news editors, you seize on a statement and highlight the part of this that suits your purpose to the exclusion of the full statement?. Where is the violin? In my posts I have firmly advocated having at least ONE current navigation data base. When I fly my homebuilt, I avoid controlled airspace like the pox, so don't accuse me of putting other airspace users at risk. That is why I like the iPad Mini - on my knee I have access to all the IFR and VFR charts for half the world. AND they are current.
The problem I have with CASA is that they will savage a VFR pilot if ANY document or data base found in the aircraft is out of date. So if my WAC was found to have been superseded last month they could prosecute me.
Like distress flares on a boat, just because they expired recently does not mean that they would not be functional for another year or so. But use to get out of danger and only when the 'legal' ones have either failed or been consumed.
IFR is an entirely different matter - all superseded stuff gets thrown overboard or deleted during the monthly update cycle as a matter of course and anyway the Company is paying for that, not me.

This might have changed with the newer easa regulation but with jar and initial easa there where no requirement that a GPS database should be up to date even when flying IFR.

It is (was?) Perfectly legal to use an outdated database as long as you verified the position of the waypoints in it. That was litterally what the law text said. And you can add your own waypoints to make up for what could be missing.
Again things might have changed lately but personally I have no issue with flying ifr with an outdated GPS database. I have paper maps and plates and verify these against the GPS database.

Flying IFR always needed an up2date GPS database in almost all countries, now with EASA this is mandatory for all.

ChickenHouse -> could you point me to the law text that says that? I have not been able to find it myself.