AN ALLIANCE councillor is appealing in the High Court against a six-month suspension from his elected role over a conviction for drink-driving.
Patrick Brown – a representative on Newry, Mourne and Down council – received the suspension last month from a council standards watchdog.
The 26-year-old appeared in court last July for riding his motorbike while under the influence of alcohol. He was fined and received a driving ban.
Mr Brown referred himself for investigation in November to the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards and a hearing was held in Belfast last month.
The commissioner found he had brought both his position as a councillor and his council into disrepute, and imposed a six-month suspension.
An application to appeal was made to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court on Tuesday and the case has been adjourned until June 4.
Mr Brown yesterday told The Irish News he was unable to comment on the legal challenge.
However, he said he is no longer suspended from his council role pending the outcome of the proceedings. His suspension had been due to run from May 14.
Mr Brown was riding his motorbike with a pillion passenger when he was stopped and breathalysed by police in the early hours of March 5 2017 – just days after the Stormont assembly election in which he was Alliance's candidate for South Down.
He appeared in July at Laganside courthouse in Belfast where he was fined £250 and banned from driving for a year. This was reduced by three months after he completed a drink-drive offenders' course.
His conviction only emerged in January when he issued an apology after being contacted by The Irish News.
In reaching her decision last month, the commissioner Marie Anderson considered evidence including submissions by Mr Brown, who accepted that his conduct failed to comply with the local government code of conduct.
In his submissions, Mr Brown set out several mitigating factors for consideration, including that he had apologised and had contacted drink-driving charities to express an interest in supporting them in an attempt to correct his wrongdoing.
The commissioner determined that Mr Brown's conduct merited a suspension.
She was satisfied his actions were likely to have diminished the trust and confidence of the public, and were sufficiently serious to rule out lesser sanctions.
