A bike shop owner threatened to contact the tax office to tell them a woman was not using her bike to travel to work.
Adrian Gallagher of Gallagher Cycles in Lifford, was taken to the small claims court by special needs assistant Helena Witherow.
Ms Witherow had claimed that just hours after paying €699 for a bike on the Cycle to Work scheme it did not work properly.
She took Mr Gallagher to court seeking a refund for the bike.
Ms Witherow told the court that she had brought the bike back to the Lifford-based bicycle distributor numerous times over problems with both the front and back gears.
Mr Gallagher initially told her that it would simply take her a while to get used to the bike.
The situation continued and Ms Witherow decided to take a friend’s bike on the same route she was used to cycling and it worked fine.
Letterkenny Courthouse (North West Newspix)
She brought the bike to two other bicycle shops and they pointed out a number of defects but said they were repairable.
Mr Gallagher had taken the bike in to repair it on a number of occasions but the problems with the gears persisted.
As well as the gears slipping when she cycled uphill, Ms Witherow also said the gears were making a grinding noise.
Ms Witherow said she had bought the particular bike on Mr Gallagher’s recommendation, saying it was a €1,000 bike but had purchased it for €699 because of the Government-backed scheme in place.
She added that as the problems escalated she told Mr Gallagher that she did not want the bike and that is when the Facebook messages between them became nasty.
She claimed he threatened her that he was going to have to tell the tax man that she was not using the bike for cycling to work.
Giving evidence Mr Gallagher said that the problems Ms Witherow encountered were common.
He claimed he had offered her a replacement bike but she was not happy with this.
“The first few months of having a bike gear slipping is normal.”
“She was in a few times about the gear slipping. I have this on a weekly basis. I knew she wanted a better-end bike.
“I offered her a direct replacement or a replacement bike, price for price but she said she wasn’t happy with that.
“I did offer to get any parts she wanted replaced but that was refused,” he said.
Judge Paul Kelly said he was finding in favour of Ms Witherow on a number of grounds.
He said Mr Gallagher did not challenge Ms Witherow on her evidence that the bike was not functioning properly and said the bike shop owner did not make a real effort to address the problem.
Adding that it seemed there was a problem with the bike, he found that Mrs Witherow was entitled to a full refund of €699 once the bike was returned to Mr Gallagher.