Shop ordered to pay €15,000 to intellectually disabled woman wrongly accused of shoplifting

The complainant was awarded €15,000 after being discriminated against following a case of mistaken identity

Represented by her sister, the complainant claimed that the security guard blocked her entry, telling her, "you are not allowed in here". File picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

The Workplace Relations Commission has ordered a store to pay €15,000 to an intellectually disabled woman who they accused of shoplifting after mistaking her identity.

Heard by WRC adjudication officer, Shay Henry, the commission was told that the woman was refused entry to the store by a security guard in February 2021. Represented by her sister, the complainant claimed that the security guard blocked her entry, telling her, "you are not allowed in here". 

Later that day, the complainant's sister phoned the store to ask why the woman was denied access, to which the store manager said she was caught shoplifting the week before, banning her from all of the respondent's stores.

According to the complainant, who has been anonymised along with the store on account of her disability, the store manager also told her that the Gardaí were involved with the case. However, the local station had no record of such an incident when the complainant's sister contacted them. 

The store manager also refused to give the name of the arresting garda when questioned, telling the sister that she was not at liberty to provide this information. Following the sister's query, Mr Henry noted that it was "clearly not the case" that the Gardaí had been notified of the incident.

The complainant's sister also filed two requests for further information from the shop, but she got no response to either of them. 

The woman left the store immediately after being refused entry, with the adjudication officer asserting that due to her disability, she was unable to challenge the security guard's assumption on the day. 

Mr Henry also noted that the security guard knew the name of the actual shoplifter, but did not ask the complainant her name, saying that had he done so, the matter could have been resolved immediately, preventing it from going this far.

Furthermore, Mr Henry found that the complainant was denied service on the grounds of her disability and was discriminated against, awarding her a redress of €15,000 which he said was appropriate given the case's circumstances.