A drunken 52-year-old antique restorer "engaged in criminal behaviour of the worst kind" when disrupting a Ryanair flight to Shannon earlier this year.
That is according to Judge Patrick Durcan who on Wednesday imposed a fine of €750 and placed Brian Moore under the supervision of the Probation Service until March of next year.
Judge Durcan imposed the sanction after Mr Moore of The Paddocks, Westbury, Limerick pleaded guilty to three 'air rage' related charges from the Berlin-Shannon flight that had 149 passengers on board on February 26th last.
Mr Moore started to verbally abuse Ryanair cabin crew on a flight after a credit card machine didn’t accept payment from him.
That is according to Insp Tom Kennedy who told the court Mr Moore continued to engage in ‘obnoxious’ behaviour towards Ryanair staff on board the Shannon bound Ryanair flight.
Judge Durcan said: “If anything untoward happens on a plane, it sends a cold shiver through everyone.”
Judge Durcan said that Mr Moore’s behaviour “was absolutely appalling”.
Insp Kennedy said that it was 15 minutes into the flight from Berlin when Mr Moore "started to make his presence felt".
After Mr Moore purchased drink and food, he tried to pay with his credit card and “it didn’t work for some reason. That is when Mr Moore told the cabin crew member to f**k off and give her back the card and it continued in that vein for a while.”
Insp Kennedy said that Mr Moore had brought a shampoo bottle on board filled with whiskey and was drinking from that.
Insp Kennedy said that Mr Moore has 10 previous convictions including one for cycling a bike while drunk and was fined €250 for the offence at Limerick City District Court in July of last year.
Solicitor for Mr Moore, John Casey said that Mr Moore would like to apologise to the the staff and passengers.
He said: “Drink is the cause of anything that has gone wrong for Mr Moore and he has parted company with it.”
In the case, Mr Moore pleaded guilty to being intoxicated to such an extent as would give rise to a reasonable apprehension that he might endanger yourself or other persons on board the Ryanair flight on February 26th.
Mr Moore also pleaded guilty to engaging in behaviour likely to cause serious offence or annoyance to any person on board the aircraft having been requested by a member of the aircraft to cease such behaviour on February 26th.
Mr Moore also pleaded engaging in behaviour of a threatening, abusive or insulting nature whether by word or gesture with intent to cause a breach of the peace.
