diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/Utils.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/Utils.java
index d781533e2..9045ad9e5 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/Utils.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/Utils.java
@@ -173,4 +173,13 @@ public final class Utils
         return retVal;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @return the base class name from a fully qualified name
+     * @param aType the fully qualified name. Cannot be null
+     */
+    public static String baseClassname(String aType)
+    {
+        final int i = aType.lastIndexOf(".");
+        return (i == -1) ? aType : aType.substring(i + 1);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java
index da1d6b117..263e73037 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import java.util.StringTokenizer;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.TokenTypes;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.DetailAST;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.FullIdent;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Utils;
 import antlr.collections.AST;
 
 // TODO: Clean up potential duplicate code here and in UnusedImportsCheck
@@ -61,7 +62,7 @@ import antlr.collections.AST;
  * @author lkuehne
  */
 public class IllegalInstantiationCheck
-        extends AbstractImportCheck
+    extends AbstractImportCheck
 {
     /** Set of fully qualified classnames. E.g. "java.lang.Boolean" */
     private final Set mIllegalClasses = new HashSet();
@@ -238,7 +239,7 @@ public class IllegalInstantiationCheck
                     }
                 }
                 else {
-                    if (basename(importArg).equals(aClassName)
+                    if (Utils.baseClassname(importArg).equals(aClassName)
                         && mIllegalClasses.contains(importArg))
                     {
                         return importArg;
@@ -249,16 +250,6 @@ public class IllegalInstantiationCheck
         return null;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * @return the class name from a fully qualified name
-     * @param aType the fully qualified name
-     */
-    private static String basename(String aType)
-    {
-        final int i = aType.lastIndexOf(".");
-        return (i == -1) ? aType : aType.substring(i + 1);
-    }
-
     /**
      * Sets the classes that are illegal to instantiate.
      * @param aClassNames a comma seperate list of class names
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/JavadocMethodCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/JavadocMethodCheck.java
index 99902b900..e7ae3af7e 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/JavadocMethodCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/JavadocMethodCheck.java
@@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ public class JavadocMethodCheck
             return false;
         }
 
-        final String base = basename(aFullName);
+        final String base = Utils.baseClassname(aFullName);
         if (aShortName.length() >= aFullName.length()
                 || !base.equals(aShortName))
         {
@@ -705,16 +705,4 @@ public class JavadocMethodCheck
             }
         }
     }
-
-    // TODO: clean up duplicate code in UnusedImports and IllegalInstantiation
-    /**
-     * @return the class name from a fully qualified name
-     * @param aType the fully qualified name
-     */
-    private String basename(String aType)
-    {
-        final int i = aType.lastIndexOf(".");
-        return (i == -1) ? aType : aType.substring(i + 1);
-    }
-
 }
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/UnusedImportsCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/UnusedImportsCheck.java
index ff8c48638..fbc26dfb1 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/UnusedImportsCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/UnusedImportsCheck.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.TokenTypes;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.DetailAST;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.FullIdent;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Utils;
 
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Set;
@@ -65,7 +66,7 @@ public class UnusedImportsCheck
         while (it.hasNext()) {
             final FullIdent imp = (FullIdent) it.next();
 
-            if (!mReferenced.contains(basename(imp.getText()))) {
+            if (!mReferenced.contains(Utils.baseClassname(imp.getText()))) {
                 log(imp.getLineNo(),
                     imp.getColumnNo(),
                     "import.unused", imp.getText());
@@ -130,15 +131,4 @@ public class UnusedImportsCheck
             mImports.add(name);
         }
     }
-
-    /**
-     * @return the class name from a fully qualified name
-     * @param aType the fully qualified name
-     */
-    private String basename(String aType)
-    {
-        final int i = aType.lastIndexOf(".");
-        return (i == -1) ? aType : aType.substring(i + 1);
-    }
-
 }