A £8,200 settlement offer to two teenagers who were followed by security staff and searched on a Dublin street has been rejected as "inappropriate" by a judge.
Mr Tom Hogan, counsel for the teenagers, told Dublin Circuit Civil Court that they were taken back to the shop and falsely imprisoned in a stockroom corridor for 45 minutes.
He told Circuit Court President Mr Justice Esmond Smyth that Mr Flor Donohoe (16), of Willow Park, Millfarm, Dunboyne, Co Meath, and Mr Martin Byrne (17), of Warren Avenue, Castleknock, Dublin, had been with friends in the Lifestyle Sports shop in St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre on June 2nd last year.
Mr Hogan said the group had not bought anything and after leaving the shop had been followed half way down Grafton Street, where they were apprehended by a security guard.
They were restrained and searched. Mr Donohoe was held against a window before being led back to the shop. Group 4 Security then took over and the pair were held for 45 minutes in a corridor.
Mr Hogan said the teenagers had been accused of stealing and were threatened that gardai would be called. They were never given any explanation or apology, even when Mr Byrne's father visited the shop and spoke with the security guard.
He told Mr Justice Smyth it had been a very protracted and frightening incident.
Mr Hogan said an apology had now been offered and a lodgment in each case of £4,100 had been paid into court as an appropriate settlement figure. He felt the lodgments did not constitute proper compensation.
He felt the apology mitigated only the damage suffered for alleged defamation but did not address the alleged assault and false imprisonment.
Mr Justice Smyth said the manner in which the plaintiffs had been apprehended and brought back to the shop left a lot to be desired.
"They were clearly quite innocent of any suggestion that they had taken anything from the shop and were clearly falsely imprisoned. It appears there was no apology or explanation forthcoming at the time of the incident."
He said he felt the lodgment was inappropriate in both cases and directed that the matters proceed to trial before another judge at a date to be fixed.
Lifestyle Sports has denied the allegations.