Up to 15 women paid to be transported on a pink “party bus” in Belfast without the proper licence or insurance cover in place, a court heard on Tuesday.
The company which operated the vehicle and a driver were both convicted of offences following a Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) investigation.
Proceedings were brought against Belfast Party Crew Ltd, its director Darren Crozier, 39, and a third defendant, 50-year-old Glenn Keatings.
The case related to alleged failures to have a Public Service Vehicle licence and insurance for carrying paying passengers.
A DVA examiner told Belfast Magistrates’ Court she carried out inspections while the bus was parked at Forthriver Road in the city on August 19 last year.
Another man got off the vehicle and informed her he was working for the company.
“He was quite forthcoming, that he was taking 15 girls into Belfast and he was paid to party with those girls,” she said.
One of the passengers showed a message and booking confirmation on her phone about arrangements for hiring the bus, cost per person and collection point.
“The name attached to the messages was Darren Crozier,” the examiner said.
Crozier, of Kylemore Bend in Newtownabbey, was charged with using a vehicle in a dangerous condition, and using a bus without a PSV or operators licences.
He did not attend Tuesday’s contested hearing, with travel and childcare commitments given as reasons for his non-appearance.
The court heard that Keatings, from Forthill Gardens in Newtownabbey, does hold a licence to drive a minibus.
But prosecutors argued it does not cover ‘hire and reward’ circumstances where passengers paid to be transported on the party vehicle.
A second DVA officer also recalled inspecting the vehicle in Belfast on the same day.
“It was a pink party bus covered in various writing, with dark windows and (inside) there was a dance pole with flashing disco lights,” she said.
Keatings, who represented himself, argued that he just picked the passengers up in the Glencairn area to take them to the company’s city centre shop as a “courtesy”.
“If I had known it was a hire and reward I wouldn’t have done it,” he insisted.
Claiming that other parties had not paid a legal bill to defend the case, the driver added: “I’m the idiot here that’s getting thrown under the bus.”
He also disputed claims that there was any pole fitted inside the vehicle.
“The only other bus that has a dance or lap dancing pole is no longer operating,” he said.
But District Judge George Conner convicted him of not having the correct licence or insurance for the bus and imposed penalty points and £325 in fines.
“I’m satisfied it was being used for hire and reward,” Mr Conner said.
Meanwhile, Belfast Party Crew Ltd, based at Royal Avenue in the city centre, was convicted of having no PSV or bus operators licence, and using a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
The cases against the company and Crozier were adjourned to next month for a further sentencing hearing.