A SERVICE station on Dublin’s south quays was yesterday fined €14,000 in the District Court after pleading guilty to using fuel pumps which were “undermeasuring” the amount of petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.
The service station on Usher’s Quay trading as One Oil pleaded guilty to 12 offences connected to the use of an unverified instrument and short measure on sale of motor fuel under the Metrology Act 1996.
The prosecution followed an action taken by the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s (NSAI) legal metrology service after it received complaints from consumers. It it the first time a service station has been convicted of such an offence.
In August 2010, service inspectors visited the station to inspect the premises and verify instrument compliance. A significant number of non-compliance issues were uncovered and reported to the garage owners, who were instructed to immediately rectify the non-compliances.
However, in response to further complaints from members of the public in February 2011, the inspectors revisited the premises and discovered that the previously verified and rectified fuel pumps had broken seals and were significantly under measuring petrol and diesel being sold.
According to Maurice Buckley, NSAI chief executive, its service visited almost 4,000 traders’ premises and tested more than 17,000 measuring instruments such as weighing scales and taxi meters, where the correct charge or cost to consumers is dependent on accurate measurement.
In addition, almost 8,000 fuel pumps at 1,300 service stations were inspected in 2010. More than 2,000 warnings, which require corrective action such as minor adjustments or recalibration of equipment, were issued to traders.
There were 13 prosecutions taken for non-compliance, where a trader did not take appropriate corrective action, with 10 of these resulting in conviction. Each of those prosecutions was related to non-compliant taxi meters.