A major branch of Dunnes Stores in Drogheda is to be closed for four days by court order next month after being convicted of selling alcohol to an underage person.
Judge Alan Mitchell fined the company €1,500 and ordered the West Street store to close in 30 days’ time, when he recorded the conviction at Drogheda District Court yesterday.
A girl who was 15 years old on October 5th last gave evidence of having bought four bottles of Smirnoff Ice in an operation supervised by plainclothes gardaí.
She said she was not asked for her age or for identification when making the purchase. The court was told that the sales assistant was dismissed from her job.
Judge Mitchell said that an aggravating factor in the case was that a duty manager was standing beside the assistant when the sale was being made and did not intervene.
Dorothy Collins said that Dunnes Stores had an abhorrence of underage persons being sold alcohol and would not tolerate such action on the part of staff.
Judge Mitchell drew attention to an RTÉ programme on attitudes to alcohol, presented by Des Bishop. “Sometimes,” he said, “ it seems that the whole social fabric of the country operates around the consumption of alcohol.”