A toy-gun "shoot-out" between two men was not a very grown up thing to do at the best of times, but definitely not when it was in an an airport arrivals hall, a court has been told.
The production of two life-like replica handguns by Peter Laurinec (22) and Emanuel Hirec (21) caused a lot of distress among people waiting in Dublin airport on May 6th last, Judge Anne Ryan said yesterday when she fined them €500 each.
Dublin District Court was told that when they started pointing them and pretending to shoot at one another, bystanders alerted airport police and they were arrested.
The two men, who are from Slovakia and who live at Grange View Grove, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour.
The court heard that they bought the toy guns in a €2 shop near where they live before setting off for the airport to meet some friends arriving from Slovakia.
Their solicitor, John O'Doherty, said they were in high spirits at the prospect of meeting people from home. "The toy guns were for joke purposes, nothing more than that and, while they are in their 20s, they were acting a lot younger than they are.
"Obviously, people at the airport viewed their behaviour as a lot more sinister than it was, but they now understand the gravity of the situation," Mr O'Doherty said.
Mr Laurinec has been living in Ireland for nine months and Mr Hirec for one month. Both were employed as warehouse workers.
Judge Ryan, who was shown the toy guns, said it was a serious matter which caused distress to a lot of people at the airport.
"To somebody who does not know they were toys, they look very authentic," she said.
She would not impose a jail sentence because they had no previous convictions and they had acknowledged, through an interpreter, that they understood the seriousness of what they had done.
"I hope they do realise what they have done and will not come before the courts again."
The judge gave them two months to pay the fines and also ordered the destruction of the toys.