Morris tribunal: A retired Sligo garda emphatically denied yesterday that he forged signatures on four claims certificates which two hand-writing experts testified was his writing.
John Nicholson denied writing any of the certificates and said he did not know who did. The certificates were for loss of earnings for Bernard Conlon on the days he attended court as a witness in a licensing case against the McBreartys in Letterkenny.
There were seven forged certificates and four had the forged employer's signature of Ben Maguire, Mr Conlon's landlord.
Paul McDermott SC, for the tribunal, said two forensic handwriting experts believed on the balance of probabilities Mr Nicholson was the author of the forged signature on four of the certificates.
Mr Nicholson said: "No, I'm not. That is not my writing, that's definitely not my writing." He said he had plenty of samples of his writing to show and he would be happy for the tribunal to examine them.
The chairman said: "I've looked at the samples where you were invited to write 'Ben Maguire' and I'm not anything approaching a hand-writing expert but even to a lay man, there is a curious similarity between those and the signature on the certificates, the similarity is striking."
Mr Nicholson replied: "It is not my signature Mr chairman. And I emphatically deny its my signature." He said he got the first certificate in 1998 as Det Sgt John White had stressed the importance of Mr Conlon as a witness.