Suspended sentence for “ideal candidate” who stored €84,000 of cannabis in home

A vulnerable woman described in court as an “ideal candidate for storing large amounts of drugs” has been handed a suspended three-year prison sentence after admitting to storing €84,000 of cannabis.

Caroline Doherty (46) of Cian Lea, Swords, Co. Dublin pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis for sale or supply.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court previously heard that Gardaí searched Doherty’s house on October 2, 2024.

Doherty was present and showed them open boxes on the kitchen floor. These boxes contained just over 4kg of cannabis, worth approximately €84,264.

After caution, Doherty told Gardaí the boxes were dropped off by an Amazon delivery van. She said she was holding them and she was to put them out into a bin that night for someone to collect.

Doherty told Gardaí that she had done this a couple of times and was aware it was cannabis.

She was arrested and took responsibility for the drugs when interviewed.

Doherty has nine previous convictions, all at the District Court, primarily for road traffic offences. She has no previous convictions for drug offences.

An investigating Garda agreed with Garret Baker SC, defending, that there was no evidence Doherty was selling the drugs, and no cash or drugs paraphernalia were found during the search.

It was further accepted that Doherty was storing the drugs, was not their owner or selling them and that she told Gardaí she was in fear.

The Garda also agreed that Doherty said she was not paid for storing the drugs, though he noted that in his experience there could have been a very small payment.

It was further accepted that Doherty has a difficult background and developed an addiction, which was active at the time of the offending but has since been resolved.

The Garda agreed that Doherty was vulnerable, describing her as an “ideal candidate for storing large amounts of drugs”.

Mr Baker outlined that his client started to self-medicate with cocaine and ecstasy, but is now drug-free.

A letter of apology, along with a letter from her daughter, was handed to the court. Doherty is a single mother of five.

Mr Baker submitted that his client was only storing the drugs, has not come to Garda attention and there is no evidence that she was doing this for financial gain.

He said his instructions are that his client was in fear at the time, adding that she was an “ideal candidate to be preyed upon by more sinister elements in the drugs trade”.

Mr Baker suggested to the court his client’s circumstances are exceptional and that the court could impose a non-custodial sentence.

On Thursday, Mr Baker noted that the probation report places his client at moderate risk of re-offending, but he submitted that there are protective factors. He asked the court to consider his client’s difficult background and vulnerabilities as well as the support she is providing to her mother, who is very unwell.

Imposing sentence, Judge Elma Sheahan said the seriousness of the offending was aggravating. She said the early guilty plea and the garda’s acceptance that Doherty’s role was on the lower end of the scale allowed the court to depart from the presumptive mandatory minimum sentence of ten years.

Having considered the mitigation, she imposed a three-year sentence which she suspended in full on strict conditions including that Doherty refrain from illegal substances and submit to random urine analysis. The judge said the evidence was that the cumulative effects of Doherty’s difficult life experiences constituted circumstances which made her vulnerable, and this provided an evidential basis for the court to suspend the sentence.

The judge suspended the sentence for three years and placed Doherty under probation supervision for 18 months.