diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b27976e4b..663d14e66 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -584,7 +584,7 @@
           <regex><pattern>.*.PropertiesExpander</pattern><branchRate>50</branchRate><lineRate>83</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.PropertyCacheFile</pattern><branchRate>22</branchRate><lineRate>18</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.TreeWalker</pattern><branchRate>90</branchRate><lineRate>83</lineRate></regex>
-          <regex><pattern>com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Utils</pattern><branchRate>69</branchRate><lineRate>63</lineRate></regex>
+          <regex><pattern>com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Utils</pattern><branchRate>69</branchRate><lineRate>69</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.XMLLogger</pattern><branchRate>86</branchRate><lineRate>97</lineRate></regex>
 
 
@@ -830,11 +830,11 @@
           <regex><pattern>.*.filters.IntMatchFilter</pattern><branchRate>100</branchRate><lineRate>90</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.filters.IntRangeFilter</pattern><branchRate>100</branchRate><lineRate>90</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressElement</pattern><branchRate>69</branchRate><lineRate>78</lineRate></regex>
-          <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressionCommentFilter</pattern><branchRate>85</branchRate><lineRate>86</lineRate></regex>
+          <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressionCommentFilter</pattern><branchRate>83</branchRate><lineRate>87</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressionCommentFilter\$.*</pattern><branchRate>87</branchRate><lineRate>84</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressionFilter</pattern><branchRate>0</branchRate><lineRate>0</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressionsLoader</pattern><branchRate>68</branchRate><lineRate>77</lineRate></regex>
-          <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter</pattern><branchRate>80</branchRate><lineRate>87</lineRate></regex>
+          <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter</pattern><branchRate>76</branchRate><lineRate>89</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.filters.SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter\$.*</pattern><branchRate>81</branchRate><lineRate>75</lineRate></regex>
 
          </regexes>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Utils.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Utils.java
index 3904847c3..cf56f1868 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Utils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Utils.java
@@ -168,9 +168,25 @@ public final class Utils
     }
 
     /**
-     * This is a factory method to return an Pattern object for the specified
-     * regular expression. It calls {@link #getPattern(String, int)} with the
-     * compile flags defaults to 0.
+     * Validates whether passed string is a valid pattern or not.
+     * @param pattern
+     *        string to validate
+     * @return true if the pattern is valid false otherwise
+     */
+    public static boolean isPatternValid(String pattern)
+    {
+        try {
+            Utils.getPattern(pattern);
+        }
+        catch (final PatternSyntaxException e) {
+            return false;
+        }
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * This is a factory method to return an Pattern object for the specified regular expression. It
+     * calls {@link #getPattern(String, int)} with the compile flags defaults to 0.
      * @return an Pattern object for the supplied pattern
      * @param pattern the regular expression pattern
      * @throws PatternSyntaxException an invalid pattern was supplied
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter.java
index 33f865501..da65edb60 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter.java
@@ -376,12 +376,8 @@ public class SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter
     public void setMessageFormat(String format)
         throws ConversionException
     {
-        // check that format parses
-        try {
-            Utils.getPattern(format);
-        }
-        catch (final PatternSyntaxException e) {
-            throw new ConversionException("unable to parse " + format, e);
+        if (!Utils.isPatternValid(format)) {
+            throw new ConversionException("Unable to parse format: " + format);
         }
         messageFormat = format;
     }
@@ -394,12 +390,8 @@ public class SuppressWithNearbyCommentFilter
     public void setInfluenceFormat(String format)
         throws ConversionException
     {
-        // check that format parses
-        try {
-            Utils.getPattern(format);
-        }
-        catch (final PatternSyntaxException e) {
-            throw new ConversionException("unable to parse " + format, e);
+        if (!Utils.isPatternValid(format)) {
+            throw new ConversionException("Unable to parse format: " + format);
         }
         influenceFormat = format;
     }
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressionCommentFilter.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressionCommentFilter.java
index 2b9a505ce..6a7ffc316 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressionCommentFilter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/filters/SuppressionCommentFilter.java
@@ -374,12 +374,8 @@ public class SuppressionCommentFilter
     public void setMessageFormat(String format)
         throws ConversionException
     {
-        // check that format parses
-        try {
-            Utils.getPattern(format);
-        }
-        catch (final PatternSyntaxException e) {
-            throw new ConversionException("unable to parse " + format, e);
+        if (!Utils.isPatternValid(format)) {
+            throw new ConversionException("Unable to parse format: " + format);
         }
         messageFormat = format;
     }