Dunnes sacked cashier for selling alcohol to underage teen

Dunnes Stores had no option but to sack a checkout assistant for selling alcohol to a 16-year-old schoolgirl who bought it on the instructions of an undercover garda, a judge has ruled.

Circuit court president Raymond Groarke heard that the plainclothes garda identified herself to Anna Perenc only after the sale of a bottle of wine to the girl had gone through at Stephen’s Green, Dublin, the company’s biggest store.

Mr Justice Groarke overturned a decision of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, which had directed Dunnes to pay Perenc €16,000 compensation for unfair dismissal.