AN INTER-county footballer sold drugs four times over a three-day period to an undercover garda, a court heard yesterday.
Former Tipperary senior player Dwayne Burns (22), Cooleen’s Close, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, was given consecutive prison sentences totalling nine years – seven of them suspended – at Clonmel Circuit Court.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of drugs for the purposes of sale or supply on July 15th, 16th and 17th, 2009.
He also admitted four counts of possessing offensive weapons at Dillon Street, Clonmel and Cooleen’s Close, Clonmel on April 1st and 2nd of 2008, and two counts of criminal damage to a window at Dillon Street.
Burns was on bail in relation to the offensive weapons and criminal damage offences when he was caught selling cocaine last year, the court heard.
Det Garda Donal Cashman told Judge Thomas Teehan that gardaí had seized a baseball bat, two golf clubs and a can of pepper spray from Burns following an incident that had taken place on Dillon Street on April 1st, 2008.
The drugs charges arose from an undercover Garda operation aimed at evaluating the extent of the drugs problem around Cooleen’s Close in Clonmel in the summer of 2009, he said.
Frank Quirke, defending, said that his client was a “significant sportsman” and represented Tipperary at all football grades from under-16 up to senior.
His GAA club was Clonmel Óg while he also played soccer with Clonmel Town.
Burns apologised for his actions, describing them as “just plain stupid”.
He had left school in fifth year, he said, but had played sports since he was a child.
He said he “wasn’t a major dealer” and “just fell into it”.
Judge Teehan said he considered the drug offences as being “towards the bottom of the middle range” of such crimes.
He sentenced him to concurrent terms of three years and two years for possession of the offensive weapons and four years for criminal damage.
For the drug charges, he imposed sentences of five years for each of the four offences – to run concurrently with each other but consecutively with the other sentences.
The cumulative sentence was nine years, the judge said, before suspending the last seven years.
He bound Mr Burns to the peace for seven years and ordered him to remain drug-free during that period.