News In Focus
28 July 2010
Irish boy, five, tastes victory in "crisp-gate"
A five year-old boy from Balbriggan, Ireland, has won a defamation settlement of 7,500 euro against value supermarket Lidl, after being wrongly accused of stealing a bag of crisps.
An employee reportedly seized Tadhg Mooney, who is now six, while the boy was leaving a local branch of the shop with his mother in June 2009.
The Circuit Civil Court was told Mooney had suffered distress and inconvenience, as well as injury to his reputation, and that the employee’s actions amounted to false imprisonment and assault.
The judge, Mr Justice Matthew Deery, approved Lidl Ireland Ltd’s offer of 7,500 euro plus costs.