Row over parking leads to two criminal damage charges
A court has heard claims a row over parking spaces led to a man spraypainting over lines on the road that had been made by his neighbour.
Simon Toussifar, of 3 Blind Gate, Rose Abbey in Kinsale, is accused of two charges of criminal damage on dates unknown between October 31 and November 1 last.
Bandon District Court heard Mr Toussifar’s neighbour, Antoinette Fitzgerald, she had made a complaint to gardaí last Halloween regarding an incident in Kinsale.
She said a new neighbour had moved in that month and she had told him about the parking provision.
“He did not want to park where he was allocated,” Ms Fitzgerald claimed in court. She had painted spaces number one and number two “quite clearly”, as they were the spaces allocated to the house in the three-house cul-de-sac.
Supt Brendan Fogarty told Judge James McNulty that Mr Toussifar then came out with a black can of spray and covered over the paint that had been laid by Ms Fitzgerald.
“It’s one that gardaí became entangled in. It became quite noisy,” he said.
Supt Fogarty said Ms Fitzgerald had the consent of the owner to mark the parking spaces but the defendant painted over them.
Judge McNulty was shown an image of the scene and queried as to where was the damage, to which the superintendent said: “The damage is to the property she [Ms Fitzgerald] had marked out. She had the consent of the owner.”
Mr Toussifar was not in court but his solicitor Plunkett Taaffe said the paint was not applied in front of the property. He said all of the evidence heard was disputed.
The court heard Cork County Council acquired the property in which the defendant lived around 12 months ago. The owner of the property in which Ms Fitzgerald resides, Declan Browne, travelled to court from Spain to attend the case.
Judge McNulty said “the law does not care for trifling, small things”, adding that Mr Toussifar may have defaced “the perfectly laid lines” on the road but that the prosecution may have a difficulty in proving he damaged anything or anybody.
He adjourned the case until November 9 so Mr Toussifar, who had submitted a doctor’s note via his solicitor, was present.
