A Sligo detective garda said yesterday that he wrote out a loss of earnings claim, which was standard procedure, but did not forge the signature of the employer at the bottom.
Det Garda Paul Casey said he was asked by Garda John Nicholson, now retired, to write out a certificate of earnings for Bernard Conlon for court attendance and left it with the word "signed" and a space at the bottom.
"This was standard procedure in Sligo Garda station to make out the form on behalf of the witness. That document would be brought to the employer to sign and brought back and the claim was sent to the Garda authorities," Det Garda Casey said.
Seven forged certificates of earnings were purported to be for Mr Conlon's witness expenses for court attendances in Letterkenny in a licensing case against the McBreartys. They were signed in the name of two people as employers, which were forged.
Forensic handwriting experts this week said that Mr Nicholson forged the signatures on four of the certificates.
Det Garda Casey said that on October 26th, 1998, Mr Nicholson came to his office in the station and said he needed to make a claim for witness expenses.
"I had absolutely no difficulty in writing out the document for John Nicholson.
"He suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and it affected his shoulder, arms and hands and he often asked people to write statements and documents out," he said.
Mr Nicholson had dictated the certificate and he wrote it out. He then handed it to Mr Nicholson.
"The body of the certificate is my handwriting and I wrote it. The signature Bernard Maguire is not my handwriting. I was not involved in drafting the certificate," Det Garda Casey said.
Paul McDermott SC, for the tribunal, said: "Your position is simply this. You were asked by your colleague to write out a certificate. It was his draft and his dictation and you presumed it was bone fide for the payment of expenses due to Bernard Conlon and there was no sense of fraud or forgery involved in this and it was certainly not your intention in relation to it.
"You were obliging a colleague by reason of his physical disability."
Det Garda Casey replied: "That's correct." Mr Nicholson pleaded guilty to uttering forged certificates and was prosecuted in court.
Det Garda Casey said when he heard this alarm bells went off.
He went to the Carty internal Garda investigation team.