DUBLIN - An Irish judge has banned an unemployed man from flying for a year for landing a helicopter on a shopping mall.

Sean O'Brien says he landed on the mall's multi-story parking garage in the town of Athlone in 2007 to collect newly cut keys for the helicopter's cockpit doors and hoped to qualify as an instructor.

But Athlone Judge David Anderson convicted the 50-year-old Monday of jeopardising lives and property and operating a helicopter with blatant disregard.

A security guard who took shelter in a stairway suffered an injured hand when the helicopter's backdraft slammed a door on it.

Experts said O'Brien risked blowing people over the edge of the building. -- AP