LORD Maginnis of Drumglass has said he will go to jail rather than be "browbeaten by bureaucrats" over a disputed train fare from Gatwick to London.
The 78-year-old former Unionist Party (UUP) minister is to be summoned before Dungannon Magistrates Court after being convicted of not paying a train fare at Gatwick Airport in London on March 5, 2014. He has subsequently refused to pay the imposed fine.
The case was originally heard before South London Magistrates Court, where Lord Maginnis was ordered to pay a total of £1,478.90 — a fine of £220, along with compensation of £19.90 and costs of £1,239.
At the London hearing, Lord Maginnis explained to the court that he mistakenly bought a one-day ticket instead of a three-day ticket, with a shortfall of 80p, while his granddaughter was with him. When he subsequently returned to Gatwick his ticket was out of date.
Lord Maginnis told the Belfast Telegraph that he had been hounded for two years over 80p.
The case has been transferred to Dungannon Magistrates Court, in the jurisdiction where Lord Maginnis lives.
However the peer did not appear at the hearing in Dungannon last week, nor was any legal representative present to argue the case on his behalf. District Judge John Meehan, presiding, ruled that a summons must now be served on Lord Maginnis in person.
Lord Maginnis lost the party whip in 2012 over his comment that gay marriage “could be a rung on the ladder towards legalising sex with animals”.
In 2013 he appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court on an assault charge. He was convicted of assaulting a man in a road rage incident and issued with a fine.
