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A judge awarded €40,000 to a grandad who was defamed and wrongly imprisoned by Dunnes Stores after being falsely accused of stealing a packet of firelighters.

Judge Gerald Keys awarded the damages to Michael Horkan (68) over the incident at Dunnes Stores in Shannon on March 31st 2015 where he was detained for 20 minutes after being suspected of stealing firelighters and Fruit ’n Fibre cereal.

On the day, Mr Horkan was accompanied to the store by his wife, Caroline Horkan who suffers from muscular dystrophy.

Judge Keys, at Ennis Circuit Court, said that Dunnes had made a “huge mistake” in accusing Mr Horkan of stealing the goods and then detaining him.

The judge added: “I find if absolutely extraordinary and just unacceptable that the hierarchy in the Dunnes empire didn’t have the decency to direct that a letter be sent to Mr Horkan apologising for the error that they made.”

Judge Keys said that “a terrible thing had happened to Mr Horkan”.

In evidence, Mr Horkan said that on leaving the Dunnes outlet on the date, a Dunnes store security guard placed a hand on him and told him ‘I believe you have firelighters you have not paid for’.

Mr Horkan said that the security guard told him ‘we have already called the Gardai - you need to come with me’.

Mr Horkan said that he told the security man “‘I have paid for everything’. I was not asked for a receipt at that time”.

Mr Horkan said that he didn’t want to call out to his wife who had reached the escalator as he didn’t want to startle her.

The retired FAS employee said that he was then marched down to a room by the security man.

He said: “I didn’t believe that I had a choice. I was totally in shock at that stage, I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

Counsel for Mr Horkan, Peter Clein BL said that it was the Dunnes’ defence that what he told the security guard was that he forgot to pay for the firelighters. Mr Horkan rejected this.

Mr Horkan said that in the office he was told by a Dunnes representative that it was policy of the store to prosecute shop-lifters.

Mr Horkan said that there were three Dunnes staff members in the office and when he pulled the receipt for the goods out of the bag and presented it “one of them said words to the effect of ‘Oh My God’ and they all walked out”.

Mr Horkan said that he remained in the office for a further 10 minutes. He said that there was a Dunnes employee sitting outside the office and “I didn’t feel that I could leave the office”.

He said: “A manager came back and asked would I like a cup of tea, but my main focus was to rush out and find my wife because she is disabled and suffers from falls.”

Mr Horkan left the office and on his way to find his wife, Caroline he bumped into the two Gardai contacted by Dunnes over the incident.

Mr Horkan said that he ran home across the road to the family home and told his wife “I had been arrested for shoplifting and wrongfully detained in the office”.

Asked about his feelings over the incident, Mr Horkan said: “I felt so frustrated, angry and shocked and I had a feeling of disbelief that something like this could happen.”

Mr Horkan said that after the incident, he required counselling and attended five sessions.

Dunnes Security man, Niall O’Connor - said that he saw Mr Horkan in the office and recalled that he was ‘shaking and looked nervous’.

Under questioning from Judge Keys, Mr O’Connor said that Dunnes security staff have no option, due to company policy, but to contact the Gardai even if they believe that a person may have made a genuine mistake in forgetting to pay for an item.

In his ruling, Judge Keys said: “I think that any supermarket which has a ‘no fault’ policy in relation to suspected thefts must have a ‘no fault’ system to be absolutely sure that if they are going to confront someone and accuse them of stealing goods that they are 100% certain. It is quite clear in this situation, it didn’t happen.”

Judge Keys said that any skilled professional security would have asked for receipts before Mr Horkan was brought back to the room.

Judge Keys said that he found that Mr Horkan was defamed and that “he was kept in a room where he shouldn’t have been kept”.

Catriona Carmody of Carmody & Co Shannon said today that Mr Horkan “was very pleased that his good name and reputation has been fully vindicated in court”.