Champion jockey Paul Carberry today avoided jail for setting fire to a newspaper on board a flight from Spain to Ireland.
The Grand National winner had been sentenced to two months behind bars in May for the air rage incident on October 1st, 2005 but was freed pending an appeal.
Following a short hearing in the Dublin District Court in Dublin today, Judge Terence O'Sullivan dismissed the case and applied the Probation Act on the basis Carberry agrees to undertake voluntary work.
One of the suggestions raised in the court was that the top jockey give horse riding lessons to young people from the inner city.
The 32-year-old, from Tara, Co Meath had pleaded not guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour likely to lead to a breach of the peace on the Aer Lingus flight.
But the trial judge described Carberry's evidence at the time as contrived. He noted his testimony to the court had three important variations on the original statement he gave gardai in Dublin airport.
Carberry claimed setting the paper on fire was a freak accident. But sentencing the jockey, the judge said he had to consider the seriousness of the risk to passengers on an aircraft travelling at 12,000ft and the distress it had caused them.
Carberry was granted bail after paying €1,000 and was allowed to walk free from court, pending an appeal which was successful today.
Lawyers for Carberry will now decide on an appropriate course of action.