A SERVICE station fined €14,000 last year for “under-measuring” the amount of petrol and diesel sold to customers yesterday reopened selling unleaded petrol for 99 cent a litre.
The promotion at the Top Oil station on Usher’s Quay, Dublin – which ran for about two hours from 1pm – caused long tailbacks along the city’s south quays as motorists queued for the pumps.
Gardaí asked the owners to stop the promotion after traffic was brought to a standstill in the city centre. A Garda spokesman said it had been given no advance notice of the promotion, but that the owners complied when asked to restore “normal” prices.
A spokesman for Top said the station was reopening after undergoing an extensive 10-week refurbishment and was now fitted with new fuel dispensing technology and “the best equipment available”.
The station trading as One Oil last year pleaded guilty to 12 offences connected to the use of an unverified instrument and short measure on sale of motor fuel under the Metrology Act 1996.
The prosecution followed an action taken by the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s legal metrology service after it received complaints from consumers. It was the first time a service station had been convicted of such an offence.
The reopened station is still owned by Hugh Farrington.
A spokesman yesterday said about 5,000 litres of 99 cent petrol was sold before the offer was suspended. Another 5,000 litres will be sold at 99 cent at a later date with the agreement of the Garda Road Traffic Corps, he said.
All the proceeds of the reduced cost petrol would be donated to local charities, he said, including the Peter McVerry Trust, Community Addiction Programme, Crumlin children’s hospital, Breast Check, Mater hospital, First Steps Chernobyl and Autism Ireland.
