The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) imposed the sanction on Michael Barnes JP after a fellow magistrate made a number of allegations about his behaviour.

These included calling her a “trolley dolley” in reference to her earlier employment as airline cabin crew and sarcastic comments which undermined her distance learning law degree.

Mr Barnes admitted that he had referred to the complainant as a “trolley dolly” in a light-hearted manner, during a period of retirement.

He said he used the term as it was one that the complainant had previously used to describe her job and apologised for the offence caused.

However, he did not offer any representations on the complaint that he had undermined her distance learning law degree and denied all other allegations.

An investigation found that the two magistrates had “engaged in two-way light-hearted banter, which failed to display professionalism”.

It was accepted that Mr Barnes caused upset by undermining the complainant’s distance learning law degree and by referencing her former air cabin career role as a “trolley dolly”.

The investigator acknowledged Mr Barnes’ apology but found these comments to be “recklessly unfeeling” through sarcastic humour, resulting in emotional harm to the complainant.

The comments were found to amount to misconduct and the investigator recommended a formal warning.

Mr Justice Keehan and the Lord Chancellor considered the advice of the committee member nominated to investigate and agreed with their recommendation.

A spokesperson for the JCIO said: “Mr Justice Keehan, on behalf of the Lady Chief Justice and with the Lord Chancellor’s agreement, has issued Michael Barnes JP with a formal warning for misconduct.”