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A JUDGE IN the Circuit Civil Court has warned parents of the dangers in using baby buggies as shopping baskets.
“People should be very careful when shopping in any store and going around with a buggy full of items taken from the shelves,” said Judge Jacqueline Linnane.
The judge made the remark while dismissing a €75,000 defamation claim brought by Dublin mother Megan Chapman against Lidl Ireland.
Judge Linnane said in March last year that Chapman had bought a bottle of motor oil for a relative at Lidl, Market Green, Balbriggan, Dublin, and had placed it in a compartment under her daughter Hollie’s buggy.
She had intended to bring the oil to her uncle, John Chapman, later that day but had changed her mind and had gone back to the same Lidl to buy some groceries, with the bottle of oil still in the buggy.
The judge said Chapman had put all the items she collected in the store on the top of the buggy. She had placed them on the conveyor belt at the check-out but had not notified staff she had bought the oil earlier that day.
The court heard that she had been paying for the items when she was approached from behind by another cashier, Lina, who touched the bottle of oil and shouted at her several times: “You haven’t paid for this,” before refusing to look at the receipt.
Chapman, of Pinewood Green Lawn, Balbriggan, claimed she had been embarrassed and humiliated and her daughter, Hollie, had been screaming and crying.
Barrister Kenneth Connolly, who appeared with McDowell Purcell solicitors for Lidl, said the store denied liability or that the cashier had acted in an unreasonable manner.
Lina told Connolly that she had been at her till behind Chapman and had seen her putting items from the buggy onto the belt.
As she had noticed the bottle of oil underneath the buggy, she had come close to Chapman and had asked her: “Sorry, did you pay for this?” to which Chapman had answered that she had. Lina had then said “That’s fine” and left.
Judge Linnane said in her view it was totally reasonable to ask Chapman if she had paid for the oil, as it was an item on sale at the time in the store, and she had removed other items from the buggy.
Dismissing Chapman’s claim, she said she preferred the cashier’s account of what had happened. She awarded legal costs against Chapman.
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Not only was her frivilous complaint shot down, but she has to pay her costs too. Delighted.
True, but this could all be avoided if these stores didn’t cheap out on basic training in how to deal with security issues. Surely you’d at least discretely ask her to a quiet corner or office before accusing?
And its the third frivolous claim in recent weeks reported to have been shot down with costs awarded against the claimant – maybe some common sense has finally taken root.
Have to agree with u i find the majority of non national staff in lidl very abrupt and ignorant compared to irish staff
Neal , you do realise that by taking a person aside into an office like that would actually be worse ? The cashier’s version of events is correct .
So Neal A “Quite corner or Office”, rather than a quiet word in her ear then and there, If she had been taken to an office or another part of the store, you would have screamed blue murder and possibly, “held against her Will” and would have been looking for a cool quarter mill or something.
Lesson here is when going back into a store with something like this, is to go up to a cashier/manager on your way in and explain/leave the item at the checkout until you are on your way back out.
sounds like a stitch up that went wrong, and this woman got her just rewards
Have to disagree with you, I find the majority of non national staff in lidl very polite and much friendlier than the Irish staff who act like its the customers fault that they don’t like their job.
I find that all the employees in my local Lidl are very polite and friendly, Irish or not. True, an recent arrivals from eastern Europe can sometimes be less smiley than others but that does change after a while
Her word against the employees that they shouted “you didn’t pay for that”, frankly the very fact she brought the matter to court sort of indicates she’s telling porkers to try get some dosh.
Most people would just write to LIDL and complain it was unprofessional, not take the company to court….
I hope she reads your comment Neil (not Neal) and counts the green thumbs so she knows what the rest of society thinks of her actions.
At long last a judge has finally copped on to these scams which have been pushing up insurance costs and threatening jobs all over the place
Awarding costs against these scammers will deter spurious claims .Well done Judge Jacqueline Linnane and McDowell Purcell solrs .
Well said Neil . I nearly vomited reading that absolute farce of a case…waste of court time etc.
Couldn’t disagree more Karen..just back from my local Lidl and the staff, Irish and otherwise, were their usual polite and helpful selves.
We now know that the oil in LIDL is very expensive .
Your comment is unfair and to be honest a bit nasty- I have always found ALL Lidl and Aldi staff very pleasant, regardless of their nationality
She didn’t ‘accuse’ her of anything, she merely asked her if she’d paid for it, try to keep up.
Neal, you’ve clearly never been in a similar position where you’ve had to take somebody aside to ask them a potentially embarrassing question. Anybody who is out for what they can get will most definitely milk that situation and before you know it there’s a case being taken for everything under the sun, stress, trauma, embarrassment, slander, kids trauma because it made her cry, she couldn’t sleep that night with worry, people are crazy.
Delighted with the outcome of this case! Hopefully it’s the first or many!
I never mentioned aldi. Did i in fact my local aldi has the friendliest nicest staff all of them but my local lidl ybw majority of staff are not hslf as nice .
Well I hope you all enjoy the next era of retail, where every minimum wage cashier is “empowered” to act like a cop, but not equipped with the necessary skills of diplomacy. The next stage is that they get a commission for everybody who they “call out”. If you need me I’ll be off doing my grocery shopping online.
Your entire premise is based off the assumption that you believe her side of the story about how the interaction went down. Gullible.
I have always found the staff in lidl to be exceptionally friendly and well trained . This case sounds like a stitch up to me. Dare i think that common sense has finally arrived in our courts? Hope so and that chancers like her get found out !
Delighted for her..hope she feels embarrassed now and is known as a scrounger
Finally , a judge with a bit of common sense ….
75k claim for that? Hahaha. No to mention the stress and distress caused to the employee ffs.
@ col c…as the famous TV Judge Judy says..
“If it don’t make sense then it usually isn’t true”
In fairness to the defense, they asked aldi right questions.
I would say that if the baby was screaming and crying it was the mother’s fault for causing such a scene .
And €75,000 isn’t exactly a Lidl amount of money.
This mother got €45k out of Dunnes for the same thing. I think even if her account was true it’s a redicious amount of money. http://www.defamationireland.com/compensation-for-being-defamed-in-dunnes-stores/
You lidl comedien.
A liddle common sense prevailed ..
Conor that case goes to prove the absolute hypocrisy in the Irish legal system! They’re fundamentally the same case but one ends with a €45k payout and the other with costs against the customer! I’m delighted this Lidl case was treated properly but I’m disgusted that it’s up to a judge on a given day to just make a 50:50 call on this, they literally are unanswerable to anyone.
The costs for this case should be a nice dent in that 45k, isn’t karma sweet?
Bit of a crude claim.
Slick James
She must have been a fairly greasy lookin one for the judge to believe the supermarkets version of events
How long have you had that joke in the pipeline?
Oil not give her the benefit of the doubt on this one…
he’s been refining it for ages Alan
Castrol GTX
Keep a distance from “people” who reverse it your car in “certain places” and Sue you for running into them! Nice little scam, buy one of them dashcams it might save a lot of ares ache!!!
Amazing she didn’t go – On the Run.
Cashier should ave allowed her topaz the checkout.
Nice job Judge. Silly woman. Ok she forgot about the oil in the bottom of the pram but she was only asked a question. What…..did she think she shouldn’t be asked about it?
Ouch that one gotta hurt!should have been happy with her bargain,accepted her slip up and left the store.some people would try claim against their own parents if they pi$$ed crooked and say they weren’t provided with the right tools for the job
Correct decision , it’s far too easy for people to invent false versions of events and attempt to gain compensation.
A fine hefty legal bill (assuming it’s not a free legal aid case)
No legal aid in the civil courts. Legal aid is only provided to ensure the human right of a fair criminal trial is upheld where their guilt must be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
In a civil court it’s judged on the balance of probability and costs may be awarded on top of compensation if the judge deems it prudent.
If he had of ruled in favour of chapman here, it would be a free for all of copycats ahoy looking to be defamed..
stinger having to pay the legal fees
It really is a great week for these cases, keep them coming!
This lays down a message to this p*** taker, the p*** taking legal profession and other future p*** takers
Really makes you wonder about the calibre of the legal professionals who take on such cases.
Vultures. I’d use the term ‘professionals’ very loosely.
This “legal professional”was on a winner either way, probably couldn`t believe his luck, guaranteed few bob for him regardless how the case fare dout.
winner winner, chicken dinner
when she gets the court bill she will have two-strokes…..
Dope. Listened to another dope down the pub. They said wha’ the cheeeek o them.
What a pathetic sad excuse for a woman. Delighted this bullshitter lost. Hope it takes years to pay off the costs
ha ha her child was crying in the buggy. Is that not just normal kiddy behaviour? Delighted this woman didn’t get her handout. Vulture.
75k wtf !!!
75k? Where the f#ck does a figure like that come from?
Out of her greedy self-entitled lying arse.
The solicitor divides the commission amount he wants by the commission % he charges.
It’s the maximum award the circuit court can make so journalists always use it as the default amount.
Everyone is missing another point here. Using the bottom section of her child’s buggy to transport a container of toxic flammable liquid.
It was oil, not petrol, very hard for oil in a sealed container to ignite.
Yes it could have leapt out the buggy and hit the baby on the head. Or if someone shot the oil it might have exploded like the movies, incinerating the baby on impact. Or the baby may have jumped out the pram and downed the oil in one fell swig. Too many risks here.
Reminds me of a quote from Ross O’Carroll Kelly ‘as working class as walking around a supermarket eating food before you’ve actually paid for it’
Sometimes you just have to eat the wedges to give you the energy to finish the shop.
You seem to have missed the part where she didn’t steal anything.
Lidl and Aldi are the best things to have happened to beleagured Irish consumers over the past few years, saving anyone who shops there regularly hundreds – if not thousands – on grocery bills annually, we’d still be getting ripped off by Tesco et al if they hadn’t shamed them into lowering their prices to try and match their bargain basement prices for premium quality goods. I’m delighted this greedy opportunist had her comeuppance.
Shop in lidl every week and find their staff always very helpful and not as rushed as the aldi staff . As for tesco got served with the check our assistant turned to the other assistant chatting about her cousins love life !! and scanned item twice and even the manager rectifying their error was so rude . My shopping was charged twice on my laser in lidl due to their system error ,got my money back ( obviously) and the same amount in vouchers as an apology.
Wow – that anecdotal evidence of a once-off incident has certainly swayed my opinion!
Stupid bitch.
Is Megan Chapman one of our ethnic minority? Just asking as I can’t imagine anyone else taking such a ridiculous case to court.
€75k…. Thats just pulling numbers from the sky… who on earth came up with that figure? The only figure they need is a p45.. €75k come down off that now…
outrageous chancer.
Ireland – The 51st State
The idiot. Her selfish attempt to get money, if successful, would mean higher insurance costs on a business which would ultimately be passed onto customers. It serves her right, and I hope she has to pay very dearly for her idiocy. Bravo, judge.
Happened me and a friend before in our local lidl we had bags from local toy shop for friends daughters bday and went to lidl to get some sweets for party cashier grabbed the bags with toys in it opened the knot in it and started rooting through them to make sure we didnt rob anything after a big arguement manager fobbed us off with a bunch of flowers
Fair play for not suing. Were they nice flowers?
Photographs or photoshop???
Something fishy about those photos of the adverts
Feck wrong article…ignore
There is still far too many leeches getting away with stupid and false claims
Delighted, I hope she has to pay a huge bill for Lidl’s solicitors. Great news.
Working in a pub in Dublin years ago and a group of foreign students got up and walked out , their bill was still active on the till system , I asked everyone working had they paid , including the owner , all said hadn’t paid them. I ran across the road with the bill and said sorry folks the bill ? They all looked at me with disgust and said we have paid . I then see the owner outside waving his arms shouting they paid me ! I grovelled a bit and ran away ….
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