Judge Cormac Dunne has fined the 62-year-old Dubliner for threatening to stab a Halfords shop assistant and pledging he would "bring his friends" to the Malahide Road store.
A 62-year-old Dublin man threatened to stab a worker in a Halfords bike shop in the city after he lost his temper in a row over a €9.99 puncture repair.
Laurence Maguire’s solicitor told Dublin District Court that his client “lost it” during an exchange with the shop assistant because he felt his consumer rights were not being honoured by the shop on north Dublin’s Malahide Road.
Gardai were called after the threats were made and Maguire was arrested at the scene on suspicion of public disorder.
He remained irate when taken outside the store by the gardai and when he appeared before the court in recent days he pleaded not guilty to breach of the peace during the incident on February 26th.
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He was fined €400 by Judge Cormac Dunne on a charge of failing to obey a direction by a member of the Garda.
Maguire – with an address at Buttercup Park in Darndale beside the store where the incident took place – had gone to Halfords to have a rear wheel puncture repaired.
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However, he made the threats against the shop assistant when a dispute arose because of a €9.99 charge being applied to the job.
"He started shouting at me that he was going to stab me and bring his friends to the store," the shop assistant told the court.
"We couldn't calm him down. He became louder and more violent."
Gardai arrived to address the situation and those officers who were at the scene told the court Maguire continue to be irate when they took him outside the shop, shouting and swearing at them.
Maguire’s solicitor Matthew Kenny told the court his client was apologetic for his actions and had acted in the way he did when he felt the shop was not honouring his rights as a consumer.
Maguire had used words that he regretted and concede he had shouted at other customers outside the store when he was being dealt with by the gardai.
Judge Dunne said the accused had “lost it” during the incident and had put staff through "gratuitous and unjustified abuse".
He imposed the fine as a penalty for failing to follow the gardai’s instructions and took the other charge into account.
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