Tesco entitled to tell any customer 'I don't want to serve you', court told

Ray Managh

Tesco, like any other Irish-based shopkeeper, is entitled to tell any customer “I don’t want to serve you,” barrister Conor Kearney said in the Circuit Civil Court on Tuesday.

He made the statement during a trial in which a mother and daughter claimed up to €150,000 damages between them against Tesco for defamation of character.

Mr Kearney, who appeared with Mason Hayes and Curran Solicitors for the shopping chain, told Leanne Caffrey and her daughter, Danielle Caffrey, that Tesco was within its legal rights in telling both of them it was withdrawing the company’s invitation that allowed them to trade in the store.

Both of the Caffreys, with an address at Boice Court, Mell, Drogheda, Co Louth, claimed they had been defamed by a manager in Tesco’s Donore Retail Centre in Drogheda when he approached and spoke to them about an alleged previous incident in the store.

The Caffreys claimed the manager had told them they were required to leave the store as a result of having been accused of abusing a member of staff some days before. Leanne Caffrey told the court she wasn’t even in County Louth on the day of the previous incident.

Judge Jennifer O’Brien heard that Leanne Caffrey, on the occasion of being spoken to by the manager, had continued shopping and had paid for her goods. There had never been any question of theft or non-payment of goods.

Danielle Caffrey, when cross-examined by Mr Kearney, denied she had on the previous occasion acted aggressively towards or abused a member of staff or filmed staff on her phone. She said she merely had a conversation with the person concerned.

Tesco’s former Donore Store manager said he had withdrawn the company’s invitation to them to trade in the shop after having viewed CCTV coverage of an earlier incident he said involved Danielle and which had been drawn to his attention by a member of Tesco’s security staff.

Judge O’Brien said she preferred the evidence of the Tesco manager with regard to what had happened in the Donore shop on June 21st, 2018 when he had approached both women and the court had not been satisfied there had been any damage caused to the reputation of either woman by what had happened.

Dismissing both claims for damages of up to €75,000 in each case, Judge O’Brien made no order as to both having to pay Tesco’s legal costs.