Worker escapes jail for burning supermarket's stock

A former member of the health and safety team at Tesco who started a fire at the company’s warehouse because he believed there was a lack of adequate fire precautions has escaped escape jail by completing 240 hours of community service.

Fergal Brady destroyed €13,391 worth of stock when he lit two pallets on fire at the Tesco distribution centre in the Hibernian Industrial Estate in Tallaght during a night shift.

Brady, aged 32, a married father-of-two, from Arthur Griffith Park, Lucan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to arson on April 1, 2003. He had no previous convictions.

Judge Desmond Hogan confirmed the order he made on June 16 last of imposing a three year sentence on Brady but suspending it if he carried out the 240 hours of community service.

Judge Hogan said at the June hearing that, on the face of it, the offence merited a custodial sentence, even in light of Brady having no previous convictions and his co-operation with gardaí.

The aggravating factors are that there was a number of staff present at the time and the fire was started deliberately. However, he didn’t realise the huge consequences of starting such a fire and didn’t think it would grow to such proportions so quickly and did act to remedy the situation.

Detective Garda John Stack told Ms Melanie Greally BL, prosecuting in June that Brady felt Tesco did not have sufficient fire restrictions in place. This was a "real bone of contention" with him and he wanted to "teach the management a lesson".

Det. Garda Stack said Brady first lit a pallet containing toilet rolls but didn’t realise that there was fire lighters nearby. The fire started to spread quickly but when the manager arrived Brady and other members of staff were working to put it out.

The fire brigade arrived shortly before 1am but at that stage the blaze had just died and there was only smoke damage done to the building. The stock that was destroyed mainly involved household cleaning items, tissues and toiletries.

The gardaí took statements from a number of the 36 workers present on the night and it was later established that Brady was the only person close to the source of the fire when it started. He admitted lighting the pallets when arrested on June 20, 2003.

Det. Garda Stack told Ms Greally that Tesco had millions of euro worth of stock in the building at the time and would have been insured but he couldn’t say if they claimed for the destroyed items because the damage done wasn’t that high.

Mr Sean Gillane BL, for Brady, told the court that it was a "careless, mindless act" but his client was not thinking straight at the time and was also suffering from depression. He hadn’t intended to cause the serious damage that was done.

The offence had cost him his job but he was back working again and his family were standing by him. He had also brought €7,000 to court as part-compensation for what he done.