A SHOPKEEPER who arrests a customer on suspicion of theft is liable to pay damages "if the suspicion does not prove to be well founded", Judge James Carroll has warned.
"They do not have the power of the police" to arrest on suspicion, he said in the Circuit Civil Court. Supermarket owners who wished to trade with the help of security men must be careful about how they proceed, and security men should be very carefully supervised, he said.
Judge Carroll was hearing £30,000 claims by Mrs Bridget Murphy and her daughter, Jacqueline, for alleged defamation and wrongful imprisonment against Primark, trading as Penneys, and Federal Securities Services Ltd.
Mrs Murphy, of Quarry Road, Cabra, Dublin, said that while attempting to exchange a previously purchased skirt in Penneys of Phibsboro she was detained and told she had been seen taking it off a rack in the store.
She told her counsel, Mr Kevin Staunton, she had been led by the arm by a garda through the store, passing people who knew her. Her daughter, who had become hysterical, had been released earlier.
Judge Carroll held that while the defendants had pleaded suspicion they had not specifically accused Mrs Murphy of theft, leaving them facing an assessment of damages situation.
"To succeed in a citizen's arrest the private party must show not only that he had a bona-fide suspicion but that it was justified and correct," Judge Carroll said.
"If someone jostles you on the street and you accuse that person of being a pickpocket you are entitled to hold and challenge him provided you are ultimately shown to be correct," he said. "If you are mistaken then you have committed an assault and must face the consequences.
After a brief adjournment for talks Judge Carroll was told the parties had resolved matters.