A farmer was yesterday jailed for 15 months and fined £20,000 when convicted of 20 offences which included the possession of banned animal growth promoters.
The sentences were handed down by Judge Mary Fahey at Athlone following a three-day hearing earlier in the week against Con Heagney (34), single, of Tully House, Eyrecourt, Co Galway. He was before the court for offences in 1991, 1993 and 1995 on his 265-acre farm where the court heard there were an average of 310 cattle.
Judge Fahey said Mr Heagney had been "unco-operative , obstructive and truculent" and had continually denied any knowledge of the materials found.
She said the public was demanding transparency in regard to food products and our economy was particularly dependent on the meat trade.
Prison terms were imposed for obstructing an authorised Department of Agriculture officer on August 10th 1993; possessing a meal sample which contained the banned substance, Clenbuterol - commonly known as "angel dust" - on the same date, and possession of prohibited substances on December 14th, 1995.
Before passing sentence, Judge Fahey heard the defendant's sister, Ms Cora Heagney, state that her older brother had grown up very quickly after the sudden death of their father and worked every hour he could to run the family farm.
Mr John Phelan, defending, said Heagney was normally an upstanding and very decent farmer and he asked the court to take into consideration his loss of a £350,000 sheep contract to Spain because a restriction order was placed on the farm.
The court heard that Heagney had a 1994 conviction for forgery of cattle identification tags.
Judge Fahey fixed bonds for an appeal in his own surety of £5,000 and one independent surety of £10,000. She ordered Heagney to pay £2,500 costs.