Two medium-sized home heating oil companies were fined a total of €22,500 at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday for being involved in a cartel which fixed - and increased - the price of home heating oil in Galway city and county by as much as 10 per cent in 2001.

Cloonan Oil Ltd, Athenry, Co. Galway, and Ruby Oil, Rockfield, Roscommon, which were described as medium-sized operators, both pleaded guilty to entering into a cartel to fix the selling price of gas heating oil, between January 1st, 2001 and February 11th, 2002.

A number of smaller home heating oil companies and some of their directors have already been convicted by the courts for their part in the cartel and have each been fined €7,500.

Imposing a fine of €12,500 on Cloonan Oil yesterday and €10,000 on Ruby Oil, Judge Raymond Groarke said he had to make the distinction and increase the fines in their case because they were bigger companies operating more than one or two trucks at the time.

Competition Authority officer, David McFadden, who headed the investigation into price fixing in Galway city and county, told the court that in 2001 and 2002 an association of oil distributors calling itself the Connacht Oil Promotion Federation got together to fix the price of home heating oil.

Mr McFadden said that Cloonan Oil was a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Estuary Fuels and Ruby Oil was part-owned by the same company at the time of these offences and that Estuary had since been bought out itself.

He told the court that neither Cloonan Oil nor Ruby Oil had previous convictions but Estuary Fuels had a previous conviction handed down at Limerick District Court on October 4th, 2000, for fixing the price retailers could charge for petrol and diesel.

Judge Groarke said it was clear that what was involved in this cartel was clearly dishonest and a form of theft.