A man who stored and transported over a quarter of million euro of cannabis herb after he came under pressure from loan sharks has been sentenced to seven years with four suspended.
Mark Moran (32) of no fixed abode, had fallen out with his family and was living in friend’s homes or in his van with his two dogs at the time.
He had borrowed €6,000 the previous week in order to buy the van and pay for insurance and was intending to use the vehicle to try and get work as a pizza delivery man.
Detective Garda Val Russell told Mr Vincent Heneghan BL, prosecuting, that Moran later told gardai he was due to pay back the loan at a rate of €1,000 per month for seven months but a week after getting the money he was told to pay the first installment immediately.
When he informed them that he did not have the cash he was forced into holding €252,450 worth of cannabis herb.
Moran pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs in his van on the Naas Road and at an address in Drogheda he had been staying in at the time, on July 3rd, 2009.
He had one previous conviction for assault and eight convictions for minor road traffic offences.
Det Gda Russell told Judge Patrick McCartan that he was satisfied that Moran’s explanation was genuine and he had been in “a desperate situation”.
Judge McCartan said considering all the factors in the case “it would be unfair and unjust to impose the presumptive minimum sentence of ten years”.
He said he was satisfied that it had been “a once off affair” for Moran and he was also taking into account his plea of guilty and co-operation with the gardaí.
Judge McCartan said that the fact a person from such a good background could get involved in this offence, “is a useful reminder that a rosy existence may not necessarily be so on closer examination”.
“Things have gone wrong for him and he has made some appalling decisions but I am satisfied that he is unlikely to make this mistake again and he seems to have come to senses,” Judge McCartan said before he wished Moran good luck.
Det Garda Russell said gardai acting on confidential information had the van under surveillance when they stopped Moran. He made immediate admissions and cooperated with their investigation.
He said he had been ordered to pick up the drugs from a particular location and he was to deliver them to another address.
A warrant was obtained for the Louth address he had stayed in for the previous two days where the drugs were discovered in a wardrobe in a bedroom.
Det Garda Russell agreed with Ms Iseult O’Malley SC (with Ms Sharon Smith BL), defending, that Moran’s grandfather had been a successful business man, there was family trust in existence and Moran had attended Blackrock College as a boarder.
He further accepted that Moran had always worked up until two and half years before his arrest, when there was fall-out in the family over the trust and he lost his job as a bartender working for one of his uncles.
Det Gda Russell agreed with Ms O Malley that Moran then developed a cocaine and cannabis habit and his parents refused to help him until he addressed his addiction. He had no one to turn for financial assistance and took a loan from people “he ought not to”.
Det Gda Russell told the court that gardai had more information on the operation than Moran and he was “basically a pawn, going no where in the systems of the drug trade”.
He accepted a suggestion from Ms O’Malley that Moran had “found himself caught up in this situation that he was not able to get out of”.