the magistrate who sentenced him was not a magistrate.

Ronald Wilson's impaired driving case took a year to be heard, and in the meantime magistrate Mr. Ken Brown got the job of Supreme Court Registrar.

Wilson argued that because Mr. Brown had taken the post, he no longer had authority to sit as a magistrate and take him off the road.

But Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Ground disagreed, leaving Wilson deciding whether to take his fight to the Court of Appeal.

Wilson's case was brought before Mr. Justice Ground yesterday by his lawyer, Mr. Richard Hector -- himself a former magistrate.

He argued Mr. Brown acted without authority when he "purported'' to continue to hear the case against Wilson after becoming Registrar.

Wilson, of Loyal Hill, Devonshire, was charged with impaired driving in June, 1990, the court heard. He pleaded not guilty but was fined $500 and taken off the road for three years.

Mr. Hector said the trial began in April, 1991, but was postponed many times because Mr. Brown was busy. It eventually continued on April 29 this year.

But on April 27 this year, Mr. Brown's appointment as Registrar had taken effect.

"There has been an irregularity and because of that, this conviction should not stand.'' Mr. Hector said he had ceased to be a magistrate himself in 1982, after six years. "Are we to conclude that I can still act as a magistrate? It would make a nonsense.'' Crown counsel Mr. Diarmuid Doorly argued that Mr. Hector had not been able to find any basis in law for a magistrate being "dis-appointed''.

"In the absence of any such clear authority or evidence that a registrar, having been a magistrate, ceases to be a magistrate on his appointment as registrar, it's my submission that Mr. Brown was validly holding that position of magistrate.'' Mr. Justice Ground agreed with Mr. Doorly and dismissed the appeal.