Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

I'm trying to get a Date field from an Informix Database. DBDATE is set DMY2.

I have tried something like this:

Properties pr = new Properties();
pr.put("DBDATE","DMY2");
conn = DriverManager.getConnection(Url, pr);
.
.
.
java.sql.Date d = r.getDate(2);

However I get an error:
System or internal error java.sql.SQLException: Not enough tokens are specified in the string representation of a date value. "N"

When I have used the date field and same code with the tables mirrored on Access I can get the Date fields with no problems at all.

David