Corrib Oil fined €15,000 for role in price-fixing cartel

A Galway oil firm has been fined €15,000 and a director €10,000 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for involvement in an oil price-fixing ring.

Corrib Oil Company Ltd, along with nine other Galway oil distributing companies, were part of a cartel which operated under the name Connacht Oil Promotion Federation.

Eugene Dalton Snr (64), of Kilbeg, Claremorris, Co Mayo, a director of Corrib Oil, pleaded guilty on his own and the company's behalf to breaching Section 3 of the Competition Act 1991 by fixing the price of kerosene in Galway on dates between January 1st, 2001 and February 11th, 2002.

The court heard previously at the sentencing of Dalton's co-accused, JP Lambe (69), of Brookhill, Claremorris, that as a result of the cartel's price fixing, the cost to the public was possibly €4.4 million per year and prices were perhaps 10 per cent higher than they would have been otherwise.

Judge Katherine Delahunt accepted that Corrib Oil didn't contribute more or less than the other companies involved in the cartel, but added that as it was the biggest company participating in the area, the cartel couldn't have operated without it.

She noted that Dalton's plea meant he would be disqualified from acting as a director of Corrib Oil for the next five years and acknowledged that this would be a significant penalty for him.

The judge accepted that the guilty pleas saved the State significant time and money after she heard that 60 witnesses would have been called should the case have gone to trial. She said that Dalton had successfully built up the company since 1987 and noted that it employed 103 people and therefore the business would also be of benefit to the local community.

The court was told that Dalton had been working in the oil distribution business for 30 years before he set up Corrib Oil some 20 years ago with seven other delivery men. He was the majority shareholder of the company, which was worth an estimated €2.9 million.

At the time of the cartel, it had 20 trucks and employed 30 staff but the fleet had since grown and Corrib Oil now owns 55 trucks and employs 103 people.

Michael O'Higgins SC said Dalton had "an exemplary profile" and was active in the local GAA, and this case would be a "bitter pill to swallow" which would bring negative publicity to him and Corrib Oil.