The Circuit Court has declared that a notice about a customer circulated within Boylesports was defamatory and awarded him €7,500 in damages, after finding the company gave no reasonable basis for the notice. The court also ordered costs, including reserved and discovery costs, to be taxed if the parties could not agree them.
The judgment, delivered by Judge Jennifer O’Brien on 21 June 2024, concerns a civil defamation action brought by Mark Kelly. The notice described him as having attempted “ambiguous bet placement activity” and included photographs and handwriting samples. It instructed staff not to serve him and to refer any issues to customer services.
The court said the notice implied fraudulent conduct and lowered Mr Kelly’s standing in the eyes of ordinary right-thinking people. Boylesports relied on qualified privilege, arguing the internal circulation was intended to protect its business interests. The court accepted that staff receiving the notice had an interest in the information and that the initial internal publication could qualify for the defence if there was a good reason for it.
But the company did not produce the records underlying its concerns. A security witness said the records had been lost when the company transferred to a new system. The judge said the court was left without a reasonable basis for the company’s negative view of Mr Kelly. In the circumstances, that failure was evidence of malice, and the qualified privilege defence failed.
The judgment separately considered an employee’s republication of the internal notice on Instagram. The plaintiff and his partner said it was copied to thousands of people in their local area. The court found the employee’s Instagram post was outside the scope of his role and made no finding against Boylesports in relation to that publication.
The court’s declaration and damages award concern the notice published within the company. It did not make a finding that Boylesports was liable for the employee’s separate social media post.