By Sonya McLean
A US woman who agreed to transport over €400,000 worth cannabis into Ireland after she ran into rent arrears on her New York home has been jailed for three years.
Hellasha Tingman (49) of Third Avenue, The Bronx, New York City, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having the cannabis for sale or supply at Dublin Airport on July 6, 2025.
Last week Tingman’s son, Shawndell Gaston (31) was jailed for four years by Judge Martin Nolan after he pleaded guilty to importing the cannabis at Dublin Airport on the same date.
Judge Nolan said Gaston’s culpability was at the lowest level, he had no record of conviction and will be serving a sentence in an Irish prison environment when imposing the sentence.
Garda Sinead Deevy told Fergal Foley BL, prosecuting, that Tingman was stopped by customs at Dublin Airport and her suitcase was found to contain just over 20 kg of cannabis worth an estimated €434,760. She has no previous convictions.
She told gardaí on arrest that she ran into rent arrears in her home in New York and a neighbour approached her and suggested she bring drugs to Dublin.
She was promised €2,000 once the drugs were delivered. She said she was to stay in a hotel in Dublin where she would be contacted to arrange handover of the drugs.
Gda Deevy agreed with Oisin Clarke BL, defending, that this was “a stereotypical case” where his client was preyed upon by “others higher up the chain” and “she endured the risk for no reward”.
It was accepted that while Tingman was promised €2,000, that “reward was based on successful completion”.
Mr Clarke said his client found herself in that “absurd” situation common in America in which people could be working full-time yet still unable to pay rent.
Tingman’s partner and father of her two children was killed years ago by a drunk driver so she had been working as a single parent.
She owed $8,000 in rent and had been served an eviction notice. She secured a stay on that eviction with the courts but she had to pay half the arrears very quickly.
She had no way to secure the funds and Mr Clarke said she engaged in this offence “to keep a roof over her and her family’s head”.
Mr Clarke said Tingman “clearly took a massive risk and has worsened her family situation in her attempts to assist them”.
Counsel said Tingman had worked consistently since finishing high school and was working full time as a home help before she travelled to Ireland. It was her first time leaving the US.
Mr Clarke said Tingman is as an enhanced prisoner since her remand in prison last July.
“It was foolish and exceptionally dangerous,” Mr Clarke submitted before he added that it was “an act of complete and utter desperation”.
Judge Orla Crowe said Tingman took on the risk knowing well what she was doing.
While she acknowledged the garda evidence that she did not know what drugs she was carrying or the value, the judge said the suitcase she was carrying must have been heavy having been loaded with over 20 kilogrammes of drugs.
“She deliberately took the risk, albeit out of desperation,” Judge Crowe said.
She accepted that Tingman is a single working mother with no previous convictions who “became embroiled due to her own financial difficulties but she undertook this deliberate role in drug trafficking”.
Judge Crowe said there were exceptional circumstances in the case that would allow her “to depart from the minimum mandatory term of ten years” before she imposed a term of three years in prison which she backdated to when Tingman first went into custody.