Row over 5c to cost Dublin postman €20k

A postman, found to have “abused” a bus driver for not giving him a receipt for 5c, yesterday lost a €75,000 claim in the Circuit Civil Court for defamation and now faces a legal costs bill of close on €20,000.

John Moran, aged 45, of Coolevin, Ballybrack, Co Dublin, told Judge Jacqueline Linnane he had put €2.20 into an automatic ticket machine in a bus in Dún Laoghaire and had to ask the driver for a receipt which would allow him to later claim a 5c refund from Dublin Bus. Mr Moran said that after having finished his delivery round on September 19, 2013, he entered the No 70 bus to go home and put €2.20 into the machine for his €2.15 fare. He had to ask the driver to press a button to print his 5c refund receipt.

When the driver had asked him if he was all right he had turned to him and said: “I’m grand. I just don’t like people trying to rob me.” The driver had ordered him off the bus and, when he refused, the gardaí had been called.