Habitat, the house furnishings supplier, failed to supply a barrister with a sofa he bought, a court was told yesterday. Mr Sean O Siothchain, Moyglare Abbey, Maynooth, Co Kildare, told Dublin Circuit Civil Court he and his wife selected a sofa in Habitat's St Stephen's Green store in October last. He was told he would have to pay the full price of £1,349 in advance and that there would be a three-month delay in fulfilling the order.
"The January 1999 deadline arrived and passed and still no sofa," Mr Ross Maguire, counsel for Mr O Siothchain, told Judge Liam Devally. On contacting the company, the O Siothchains were told there was no trace of their order. On production of their copy of the order form, they were told no one knew of the order. A check with TNT Ltd, Habitat's delivery agents, revealed other people seemed to have problems with orders, the court heard.
Mr O Siothchain told the court he feared for his money. He believed Habitat (Ireland) Ltd, which traded as Habitat, had not filed returns with the Companies Offices since 1992 and that it was in imminent danger of being struck off the Register of Companies.
Judge Devally granted Mr O Siothchain an ex parte mareva injunction restraining the company from reducing its assets below £3,000.