A DISTRICT Court judge was yesterday fined €250 when he pleaded guilty to using his car without a National Car Test certificate after he was stopped by gardaí carrying out inspections to see that motorists were complying with the regulation.
Judge Terence Finn (56), a native of Mitchelstown, north Cork, who sits in District Court Area No 21 which covers east Cork, west Waterford and south Tipperary, faced three charges arising from driving his BMW without an NCT certificate.
Judge Finn, who was appointed a judge in 1991, was charged with using a vehicle without an NCT certificate, failing to display an NCT certificate and failing to produce an NCT certificate when he was stopped by gardaí at Greencloyne, Youghal, Co Cork, on July 26th, 2007.
State Solicitor for North Cork Frank Nyhan told Mitchelstown District Court that the defendant was pleading guilty to the first charge of using a vehicle without an NCT certificate and the State was not offering any evidence in relation to the two other charges.
Sgt Adrian Lomasney of the Midleton Traffic Corps said that he was operating an NCT checkpoint in the southern region on the day in question and he stopped the 00 Cork reg car and noticed it did not have an NCT certificate required for all cars over four years old.
Judge Finn did not attend yesterday's hearing but his solicitor Justin Condon told the court that his client had since obtained an NCT certificate for the vehicle and that he was very embarrassed and very apologetic over the matter.
Mr Nyhan said that the defendant had had no previous convictions and Judge Michael Pattwell said that he had a standard fine of €250 for the offence which he imposed on Judge Finn and he gave him 14 days to pay with three days in prison in default.