Mayo supermarket fined €2,000 for selling vape to 15-year-old

Kavanagh’s, operators of SuperValu in Claremorris, have been fined €2,000 and had their licence to sell nicotine inhaling products suspended for seven days after selling a vape to a 15-year-old.

The company pleaded guilty at Castlebar District Court to selling a nicotine inhaling product to a child at SuperValu, Chapel Street, Claremorris, on April 17 last.

The offence was contrary to sections 28(1)(b) and 28(2) of the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023.

The court heard the sale was caught in a test purchase by a HSE environmental health officer, who was accompanied by a voluntary minor. The officer watched a staff member sell a Lost Mary Blue Razz Ice vape to the 15-year-old.

The teenager asked for a blueberry vape. The staff member asked would Blue Razz do. The teenager handed over €50 and received the vape and change.

The HSE solicitor told the court the offence carried a Class B fine of up to €4,000. A conviction also brings a mandatory licence suspension of between seven and 30 days.

Defence solicitor Bob McArdle said the facts could not be denied. He said the company had pleaded guilty at the earliest stage.

Mr. McArdle told the court the group operates 12 stores in four counties and handles tens of thousands of transactions every day.

A company headquarters representative, the store manager and the staff member who made the sale were in court, he said, so they could see the consequences of what was done.

He asked for as much leniency as possible. The suspension was mandatory on conviction and would bar the store from selling vapes, he said. As it was a first offence, he asked that it be as short as possible.

Judge Vincent Deane imposed the seven-day minimum suspension, starting on Sunday, November 15. He also fined the company €2,000 and allowed six months to pay.

The company must also pay €1,500 in costs to the HSE, which the defence agreed.

* Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.