A JUDGE wished a man good luck after telling the court that the case showed that a rosy existence was not always what it appeared to be.
Mark Moran (32) of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to charges that he stored and transported more than €250,000 of cannabis herb. He has been sentenced to seven years with four suspended.
He said he had come under pressure from loan sharks and had fallen out with his family. He 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.
Judge Pat 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 agreed with Iseult O’Malley, defending, that Moran’s grandfather had been a successful businessman, that there was a family trust in existence and Moran had attended Blackrock College as a boarder.
He further accepted that Moran had always worked up until 2½ years before his arrest, when there was a fall-out in the family over the trust and he lost his job as a bartender.
Ms Maeve Daly, who had worked with the Health Service Executive in relation to drug programmes and is Moran’s aunt and godmother, told Ms O’Malley that her nephew’s parent’s difficult marriage had affected him greatly.