SINN Fein's Gerry Kelly has been given an "informed warning" for clinging to a moving PSNI Land Rover, weeks after DUP councillor Ruth Patterson received the same sanction for remarks she made online about a republican parade.
The North Belfast assembly member revealed last night that he had received the warning from the PSNI and said he believed at the time he had done the right thing.
Mr Kelly was carried on the front of the Land Rover in the Carrick Hill area of north Belfast in June during trouble which broke out after the Tour of the North parade.
The Policing Board member claimed he had been intervening on behalf of the parents of a 16-year-old boy who had been arrested and had been trying to stop the vehicle to speak to officers.
Mr Kelly last night said he had been "calming" the situation.
"I was given an informed warning relating to my actions in standing with the community in Carrick Hill during an Orange parade last summer," he said.
"I believed at the time I did the right thing. I was part of calming a very difficult situation. I have always believed that this is a matter which should not be brought before the courts."
An informed warning is a formal reprimand administered by police and, although not a conviction, is recorded on a person's criminal record for a period of 12 months.
TUV leader Jim Allister last night described the decision as meaningless.
"This will do nothing to restore loyalist faith in policing but, rather, it will perpetuate the present disconnect."
Last month a charge of posting a grossly offensive electronic communication on facebook was withdrawn against DUP councillor Ruth Patterson, as she too was given an informed warning.
The Public Prosecution Service said at the time it was in "the public interest" to drop the case.
Ms Patterson had commented on a fictitious account of a gun and bomb attack on a contentious republican parade in Castlederg, Co Tyrone in which it was suggested a number of senior Sinn Fein figures were killed
At the time of her comments she had apologised for "a lapse of judgment" and speaking outside the court when the charge was withdrawn she declared herself "unbowed and unbroken".
* 'LAPSE': Ruth Patterson
* 'CALMING': Sinn Fein MLA for North Belfast Gerry Kelly clings to a police Land Rover in June last year after trouble broke out in the Carrick Hill area during the loyalist Tour of the North parade