By Natasha Reid
A man who agreed to hold €17,000 worth of drugs for a fee of €100 to help cover the costs of his children’s illnesses has been given a suspended sentence.
The father-of-three, who is not being named to protect the identity of his children, had told gardai that his daughter wasn’t getting the help she needed.
The 26-year-old was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of cannabis for sale or supply at his home in July 2023.
An investigating garda testified that he and a colleague were called to a domestic incident at the address on July 4, 2023. By the time they arrived, the man’s partner and children were outside on the footpath dealing with other gardaí.
The defendant handed them the keys of the apartment and said he was going to go elsewhere, but needed to go back up for his belongings first.
However, when he was still gone 10 minutes later, the gardaí became concerned and went up to see if everything was alright. They met him coming down the stairs in a panic.
They got a strong smell of cannabis as he passed. They entered the apartment, got the same strong smell, and saw an open backpack with cannabis visibly present inside it.
They contacted a colleague downstairs to stop the defendant, and more cannabis was found in a backpack he was carrying.
The man admitted that he was holding the drugs for financial gain.
He had previous convictions, including one for possession of knives for which he was under a suspended sentence at the time.
Under cross examination by Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, the garda agreed that his client had two children at the time and since has a third. All suffer from certain issues, particularly his eldest, he said.
“It was all for my little girls,” the man had told gardaí. “My daughter’s not getting the help she needs and I just wanted her to have a good life.”
Mr Le Vert told the court that his three children all have issues with hip dysplasia. The eldest has had surgery, and the middle child has had two surgeries. He said that the eldest also has developmental issues, while the baby has a heart murmur.
The man had always worked since leaving school and was with the mother of his children for several years. Counsel handed in a letter from her to say what a good father he was and that she needed him.
“He was facing the prospect of his children not receiving the help they need and he just wanted to help them,” he said. “He was getting €100 for holding it.”
The garda said that he accepted this.
“It’s a measure of someone’s desperation when they find themselves, as a working person, putting themselves at risk with €17,000 of cannabis for €100,” suggested Mr Le Vert.
Judge Martin Nolan considered the matter for some time, and decided that the man was “worth taking a chance on”, and imposed a three-year suspended sentence.