First dealer fined €500 for reducing mileage on car
After a special investigation by the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs (ODCA), the dealer received a four-month suspended jail term and was fined €500 by a district court.
Consumer Affairs Director Carmel Foley said the judge’s decision to impose a suspended custodial sentence gave a clear message that abuse like this would not be tolerated.
“This prosecution is very significant and we are continuing to pursue other similar cases and would urge consumers to be vigilant and check the mileage of the cars they are buying,” Ms Foley said.
Michael O’Donnell, Castlefogarty, Ballycahill, Thurles, who was convicted of the offence, undertook to make full refunds to the two customers involved.
O’Donnell was among 27 businesses successfully prosecuted for various breaches of consumer law last year, according to the ODCA annual report published yesterday.
The office conducted 1,500 investigations last year following consumer complaints.
Another ODCA investigation yielded €1.8 million for Bank of Ireland customers last year following a successful High Court prosecution of the bank.
Their online business and American Express Blue Card customers were refunded money after the bank was found guilty of imposing charges for certain services in contravention of a direction given by the Consumer Affairs director.
The ODCA carried out seven surveys of pubs last year to see if they were complying with the Drinks Display Order. These inspections resulted in eight pubs being successfully prosecuted.
There were a further three successful prosecutions of pubs in Dublin and Galway for putting up prices before rugby internationals and the All-Ireland in Croke Park.
“These prosecutions and the subsequent bad publicity seems to have kept pubs on the straight and narrow since then, with some even taking out ads in national newspapers saying they were not hiking drink prices for special events,” Ms Foley said.
The ODCA also prosecuted Dunnes Stores and Tesco for below-cost selling last year.
“But there was generally a very high level of compliance with the consumer law as a result of constant inspections from my office, with compliance rising to 90% by the end of the year,” said Ms Foley.
