Catriona Carey’s appeal against a driving ban was adjourned after a “severe communication disruption”.

Ms Carey, formerly of Weir View Hill, County Kilkenny, received a four-year driving ban and a suspended sentence in May last year after pleading guilty to traffic offenses, including driving without a license or insurance.

She then appealed the decision and was allowed to continue driving while awaiting the result.

The former Kilkenny Camogie player was due to appear in court on Thursday to challenge her appeal. Her Dublin-based solicitor, Andrew Broderick, said he was unaware the case was listed for today and neither he nor Ms Carey were present in court.

Prosecutor Gerald Meaney told the court he exchanged text messages with Mr Broderick in April and confirmed the appeal would be heard on either May 23 or 26.

He said he has not received any further contact.

Judge Sinéad Ní Chúlacháin asked Mr Meaney to ask Mr Broderick why neither he nor his client were in court.

“I called and spoke to Mr Broderick and he was surprised the case was listed for today but he seemed aware of the call this morning,” Mr Meaney said.

“He said he’s tried to text me twice this week but I haven’t received anything.”

Local solicitor Edward Hughes, who said he did not receive instructions from Mr Broderick but contacted him “as a courtesy”, requested an adjournment after what he called a “serious breakdown of communications”.

Mr. Meaney had no objection. He described his dealings with Mr Broderick to date as “very satisfactory” and indicated he would accept any request for the matter to be deferred to a later date.

Four witnesses, including two members of An Garda Siochana who stopped Ms Carey for traffic offences, a Road Safety Authority (RSA) employee and a Garda Sergeant from the Fixed Charge Processing Office, were present in court.

Judge Ní Chúlacháin ordered their release.

Mr Meaney said two of the prosecution witnesses in the case would be absent on holiday in July and requested that the matter be postponed to a later date.

Judge Ní Chúlacháin said it was not for Mr Meaney to inform Mr Broderick when the case was due to proceed, saying there would be significant costs in summoning the witnesses to appear in court.

She said it will be “imperative” at the next hearing against Ms Carey and advised Mr Meaney to file a claim for reimbursement.

In October last year, Ms Carey was due to appear in court to appeal the severity of her sentence.

Her legal team told the state on the morning of the hearing that she instead wanted to challenge the driving ban in full and asked for more time to prepare a case.

The matter was postponed to January 2023, but that hearing was not held due to the lack of judges.

The former Kilkenny camogie player was reported by Gardaí for driving offenses and received 12 penalty points for speeding in a 50kph zone and speeding in a 120kph zone. She was also caught twice driving with a mobile phone in her hand.

She received a six-month disqualification from November 8, 2021 to May 8, 2022.

However, while the disqualification was active, she was twice pulled over by Gardaí for traffic offences.

Garda Julie Chapman testified before Kilkenny District Court that she stopped the accused while driving along Castlecomer Road in the district on 21 November 2021.

Gda Chapman said Carey was driving at 70mph in a 50mph zone and had only a picture of her driver’s license on her phone when she stopped.

It turned out she was banned from driving, and when Catriona Carey was informed of this, she was “different” and started “roaring and screaming.”

Gda Chapman said the defendant was “completely out of control” and “didn’t speak to her”.

Her attorney, Kevin Roche BL, said there was “some confusion” about the penalty points that led to her disqualification.

Garda Thomas Loughnane told the court he stopped Catriona Carey from driving her BMW on Castlecomer Road in December 2021.

Gda Loughnane said he knew Carey had been banned from driving and informed her about it.

Carey told Garda: “That’s my car”, feeling teased, adding: “Do you expect me to get taxis?”

Judge Geraldine Carthy considered Carey’s apology and her admission of guilt, but said it was difficult to come up with an apology when she was pulled over a month later after getting into a car “knowing full well that she was disqualified”.

The court heard how Carey was sentenced earlier.

She was convicted of fraud in February 2020 after tampering with a check she received from a client who hired her as his accountant.

Carey exchanged a check for €6,948 made out to the Income Commissioner General, made it payable to himself instead and cashed it at a bank in Kilkenny.

She received an eight-month suspended sentence.