A Peace Commissioner, questioned by gardai in connection with alleged heavy-handed debt-collection tactics has been awarded damages in the Circuit Civil Court for slander.
Judge Liam Devally said the name of security consultant Mr Fergus Nestor was still on a Garda file relating to the inquiry and he suggested it should be removed.
Mr Nestor, of Casimir Avenue, Harold's Cross, Dublin, was awarded £7,000 damages and costs against Mr Jim O'Brien, of Nationwide Security, Kenilworth Road, Rathmines, Dublin.
Judge Devally said Mr O'Brien, despite knowing it to be untrue, had named Mr Nestor as one of two men who used menacing and threatening words in collecting a debt on Mr O'Brien's behalf.
He told Mr Nestor's counsel, Mr Oisin Quinn, that his client had been wrongly associated with leaving a shop owner and his daughter in fear that "things could happen to them or their premises."
Judge Devally said that when questioned by gardai, Mr Nestor had denied involvement in the incident, but Mr O'Brien had refused to exonerate him from any possible connection with the event or indicate that Mr Nestor was not involved in debt collection for him.
"He had an opportunity to exonerate Mr Nestor but chose to remain silent. Again, when written to and asked to retract his allegation, silence prevailed," Judge Devally said.
As a result there was a file in Kevin Street Garda station which still contained Mr Nestor's name as a possible suspect of a criminal act which could well have incurred a prison sentence had the case been pursued.