Four Vietnamese men were fined and ordered to return to London after a fight in Limerick last weekend in which three others were injured. In Limerick City Court yesterday, Judge John O'Neill told the defendants, three of them brothers and all catering workers, that the use of knives would not be tolerated.
When told by Mr Pat Barriscale, solicitor for the defendants, that he had £6,000 in cash and four airline tickets to London in the names of the defendants, the judge said no one who used knives could get away with it by paying their way out of court.
Insp Gerry Mahon said the disturbance began in a club on William Street. When gardai arrived they found four men with knives and three suffering from knife wounds. Two of them had to be taken to hospital, where one was detained.
It was agreed the four would be escorted to Shannon Airport and put on a flight for London.
Chi-Cuong Huynh (30), Tiber Gardens, Copenhagen Street, King's Cross, London, who pleaded guilty, was fined £500 on each of five charges of being in possession of a knife contrary to the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act, 1990, and Section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Persons Act, 1997. He was ordered to pay £500 compensation to each of the three injured parties, who were Malaysians and a Hong Kong-British national. He was also ordered to pay £125 for criminal damage caused to furniture at the club.
The three other defendants were Hung Huynh (26), of Tiber Gardens, Copenhagen Street, King's Cross, London; Chi-Tan Huynh (20), Queensbridge Court, Hackney, London; and U-Van Tran (26), Newcastle Road, Tottenham, London. They were each fined £200 on the criminal damage charge and being in possession of knives, plus £125 damages. The other charges were struck out.
Two of the injured parties, Mr Chia Him Siam (32), a Malaysian with an address at Mallow Street, Limerick, was remanded in custody for a week on an immigration charge of failing to register under the Aliens Act. Mr Tak Leung Wong (41), with an address at Lisheen Homes, Meelick Road, Caherdavin, Limerick, who was on a similar charge, was remanded on bail of £3,000 for a week.