THREE cars were extensively damaged when two rugby players walked on the roofs during an international rugby festival, a court was told yesterday.
Mr Gerry Ross (26), a stud farm manager of Ragusa Stud, Ballymore Eustace, Co Wicklow, and an interior design centre manager, Mr John Keegan (29), of Moorfield Road, Newbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to charges of criminal damage, being intoxicated in public and engaging in offensive conduct before Judge Brendan Wallace in Kinsale District Court.
Supt Bertie Kelleher, prosecuting, said the incident occurred on the week of the Kinsale Rugby Sevens.
Neither of the defendants had been in trouble before and over £2,000 was paid in compensation to the car owners.
The defending solicitor, Mr Tony Hanahoe, appealed to Judge Brendan Wallace not to record convictions against the men, despite their guilty pleas, as they both wanted to travel extensively to further their careers.
Judge Wallace said he accepted this was an isolated incident and he asked the defendants to pay £250 each into the poor box.
He warned them to behave themselves and dismissed all of the charges under the Probation Offenders Act.