By Sonya McLean
A low-level drug dealer has been jailed for four and half years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for multiple incidences of dealing and money laundering.
Kaide Fowler (38) of Deanstown Avenue, Finglas West, pleaded guilty to a string of charges of having various different types of drugs for sale or supply, including heroin, cannabis and cocaine on dates between February 5, 2021 and January 19, 2023.
He further pleaded guilty to multiple charges of engaging in the possession of cash, believed to be from the proceeds of crime on dates between May 2021 and January 19, 2023.
The sums ranged from €507 to €61,418.
Fowler’s wife and mother of his three children, Catriona Hyland (33) of Berryfield Drive, also in Finglas, pleaded guilty to having the proceeds of crime on February 5, 2021.
She was given a two- and-half-year suspended sentence.
Dean Kelly SC, defending Fowler, told the court that his client’s childhood was “pretty chaotic which featured drugs and criminality going back years”.
His father, Anthony Josh Fowler, was murdered last November following a stabbing at his Finglas home.
Mr Kelly said his client described himself to gardaí as someone who was selling drugs and made full admissions.
“He was a drug user all his life,” Mr Kelly said before he described an incident during which Fowler was giving Valium at 11 years old by his parents for toothache as they thought it was less hassle than bringing him to the dentist.
Both of his parents were drug addicts but his mother is now dealing with her addiction, Mr Kelly told the court.
He said Fowler suffered significant poverty and neglect his whole life.
“His home was a seat of drug use from a very early age,” Mr Kelly said.
Mr Kelly said his client was under pressure to hold the large sum of money of just over €60,000.
He said this sum of cash was packaged and sealed while the other sums of money Fowler was caught with was “rolled up in his tracksuit bottoms”.
He said his client saw his arrest in this case as “something which may have saved his life”. Since his remand in custody last January, he is drug-free and is attending school in the prison, counsel said.
Judge Martin Nolan said Fowler had relevant previous convictions, noting a previous five-year suspended sentence for having drugs for sale or supply.
He accepted Fowler had “a sad life with plenty of challenges in his early life” but said he was “drug dealing to a serious degree at a low level in the area”.
Judge Nolan accepted that Hyland accepted responsibility for some of the cash found.
He said she had family responsibilities for the couple’s three children before he imposed a two-and-half-year sentence which he suspended in full.
“It would be unfair on the children to imprison both parents at this time,” Judge Nolan commented.
Garda Anthony Quinn told Edward Doocey BL, prosecuting, that two houses in Berryfield, Finglas were searched in February 2021.
He said cocaine, valued at €3,000, heroin valued at €4,000 and cannabis valued at just under €100 was found, along with cash totalling €3,680 and £70 Stg.
Some of the cash was found in a handbag and a purse and this is the money Hyland took responsibility for.
That same day, a car, which was parked outside a property also in Berryfield, was found to contain €61,480 in cash and a number of tablets.
There were documents in the car relating to both Fowler and Hyland. Fowler’s fingerprints were found on one of the bags containing just over €30,000 in cash.
Fowler took responsibility for the cash. Hyland made no admissions during a subsequent garda interview.
A small amount of cannabis was also found in this second house.
Gardaí on patrol stopped Fowler in Finglas in April 2021 when €1,300 was found on his person.
He was also stopped the following May when he was the passenger in a taxi and €3,090 was found on him.
Gda Quinn said his phones were also seized and “evidence of drug activity” was found on them following analysis.
In January 2023, Fowler’s home in Deanstown Avenue, was searched.
Small amounts of cannabis, cocaine and heroin, worth just over €3,700 were found along with €570 in cash and various other drug paraphernalia.
Fowler has 102 previous convictions, including a five-year suspended sentence for possession of drugs for sale or supply in February 2015.
Hyland has three previous convictions for road traffic offences.