Travellers get prison warning

FIVE travellers were warned yesterday in the High Court they would be sent to prison for three months for contempt if they had…

FIVE travellers were warned yesterday in the High Court they would be sent to prison for three months for contempt if they had not removed their caravans from a Co Dublin business park by tomorrow.

Last July the court ordered the travellers to leave Sandyford Industrial Estate, where they had been camping on land owned by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Yesterday, Mr Dermot Flanaghan, counsel for the council, said Mr Patrick McCarthy Ms Kathleen McCarthy, Mr Liam Doran, Mr Thomas Doran and Ann Doran, who were occupying part of the estate's open space, had breached a court order. Mr Flanaghan claimed the property rights of businesses in the estate had been interfered with by the travellers.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, said he would commit the five to prison for three months but put a stay on the order, which would take effect only if the travellers failed to leave the land by tomorrow or if they trespassed on it again.