Conditional discharge for former boxer after switch to guilty plea
Conditional discharge: Martin Rogan
FORMER heavyweight boxer Martin Rogan was given a conditional discharge yesterday after he admitted perverting the course of justice earlier this month.
The taxi driver (48) was due to stand trial alongside wife Fiona on a charge linked to an incident last February.
Rogan’s Audi was detected on a speed camera on the Antrim Road being driven at 40mph in a 30mph limit on February 22.
While he initially claimed he was driving the taxi, he later contacted the Fixed Penalty Office to claim his wife had been behind the wheel.
Mrs Rogan filled in a form claiming she was driving the car on the night in question, which subsequently led to the couple being arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice by providing ‘false particulars’ on the Fixed Penalty forms.
The couple, from Glen River Park in Glenavy, were due to stand trial at Belfast Crown Court. However, the father-ofthree changed his plea to guilty after a jury was directed by a judge to acquit his wife.
Prosecutor Gareth Purvis said when Rogan later accepted he was the driver, he failed to notify the relevant authorities, which led to a police investigation.
Defence barrister Stephen Toal spoke of the memory issues now experienced by Rogan as a result of his boxing career, and revealed “there was a point when he realised, having thought about it, that he was the driver”.
Judge Finnegan noted Rogan’s charity work, telling him: “You are a credit to the community,” and handed him a 12-month conditional discharge.