Man allowed stolen BMW to be parked at apartment complex

A FORMER forklift driver whose family home was burned down while he was in custody has been spared prison for a crime committed to pay off a drug debt.

Patrick Murphy (27) said he agreed to have a stolen BMW car parked in an apartment complex because he owed a drug debt from his cocaine habit.

Murphy, formerly of Monksfield Green, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a stolen Apple iPod and to handling the stolen car at an apartment on Main Street, Clongriffin, Dublin on August 18, 2014.

The stolen items had been taken during a burglary of a house at The Links, Donabate, north Dublin, four days earlier. The homeowner had fallen asleep and awoke to find the front door of his house open and a man reversing out of his driveway in his BMW 5 Series.

Investigations led gardaí to a Clongriffin apartment where Murphy was staying at the time. The car was located in the parking space linked to that apartment.

After his arrest Murphy told gardaí he was getting paid a few hundred euro to let others park the car up for the night. He said he didn’t know who would be paying him and he agreed to do it because he owed a drug debt from his cocaine use.

There was no evidence that Murphy was involved in the burglary. He said he didn’t have the car keys and told gardaí he buzzed the others in that night and didn’t go down to the car.

Judge Martin Nolan suspended a one year prison sentence.

Murphy has 25 previous convictions, including one for drug dealing in 2005, five under the firearms act, one for criminal damage and one for stealing a car.

Anne Rowland BL, defending, said that Murphy came from a very decent family and was well brought up. She said he had a good working record and had previously worked casually as a forklift driver.

She said he began using cocaine and built up a drugs debt. He had his life threatened on a number of occasions owing to the debt.

Murphy’s family home was gutted in February 2014 after a petrol bomb was thrown through a window in the house. Murphy was in custody at the time of the fire, in which his mother was injured.

His mother suffered from an illness and his father gave up his job in security to provide full-time care for her. Since the house fire they had been unable to afford to buy another home.

Counsel said Murphy was 17 at the time of the drug dealing conviction and had agreed to hold the drugs for someone else.

Declan Brennan