{"id":65800,"date":"2025-10-07T23:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/65800\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:54:07","slug":"hot-air-limerick-shop-owners-fined-for-selling-vapes-to-fifteen-year-old-in-hse-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/65800\/","title":{"rendered":"HOT AIR: Limerick shop-owners fined for selling vapes to fifteen year old in HSE sting"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE OWNERS of two vape shops in Limerick city<\/a> have been prosecuted by the HSE after they were caught selling pineapple-flavoured vapes to a fifteen-year-old in a sting operation.<\/p>\n

Limerick District Court heard that both shop owners had received warning letters prior to the HSE sending an undercover girl to each of the premises to carry out test purchases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In each case, Judge John King was told the juvenile was not asked for ID or to confirm their age when they asked to purchase the vapes.<\/p>\n

Having heard details of the offences, Judge King indicated he would apply the Probation Act if each of the defendants made a \u20ac1,000 donation to Cuan Mhuire addiction services in Bruree.<\/p>\n

Muhammed Arshad – the owner of Tech Terminal at 6 Parnell Street – was also directed to pay the HSE’s costs, which totalled \u20ac1,722.\u00a0In his case, the court heard the offence happened on April 24 last.<\/p>\n

While Mr Arshad was discussing the penalty with his solicitor, Judge King commented: \u201cIf he wants to haggle, I will finalise the matter today\u201d – implying a threat of a fine or a prison sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solicitor Barry Kelleher, representing the HSE, sought a more severe penalty and he asked the court to consider recording a conviction in the case. The judge refused the application.<\/p>\n

Read More: Man, 30s, rushed to hospital after early morning assault in Limerick fast food premises<\/a><\/p>\n

The court heard that Mr Arshad – a father-of-six – earns between \u20ac2,000 and \u20ac3,000 per month and his solicitor, Darach McCarthy, said he was cooperative and did everything he could \u201cto make the prosecution easy\u201d.<\/p>\n

He submitted the offence could be characterised as \u201ccareless liability\u201d adding that Tech Terminal is a \u201cfamily business\u201d and that the business model is one which is commonplace in Pakistan, where Mr Arshad is originally from.<\/p>\n

In a separate prosecution, Farooq Saeed – the owner of Home Selections at 52 William Street was given a similar penalty for selling an \u20ac8 vape to the same fifteen-year-old on October 31, 2024<\/p>\n

Mr Saeed, who is also originally from Pakistan, works full time at the premises while every other employee works on a part-time basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solicitor Tom Kiely said his client has been in business for five years and that he was \u201cfully co-operative\u201d with the investigation. Mr Saeed was ordered to pay \u20ac2,000 towards the legal costs of the HSE.<\/p>\n

Judge King was told both defendants have now introduced new policies and trained their staff to ensure there is no repeat of the incidents.<\/p>\n

Both cases were adjourned to allow the defendants to pay over the monies.<\/p>\n

The maximum sentence for selling vapes to children under 16 is six months imprisonment and\/or a \u20ac4,000 fine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE OWNERS of two vape shops in Limerick city have been prosecuted by the HSE after they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,72,5721,2120,61,60,1396,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-65800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-district-court","11":"tag-hse","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-limerick","15":"tag-limerick-city"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}