(Pictured: Therese Doyle (35) leaving the Court of Criminal Appeal)<\/p>\n
By Ruaidhri Giblin<\/p>\n
A Dublin couple who were were given a wholly suspended seven year sentence for storing over half a million euro worth of cannabis in their home must wait to hear if their sentence will in increased.<\/p>\n
The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday reserved judgement in an appeal brought by the Director of Public Prosecution on grounds that the sentence imposed on partners Keith Jervis (36), and Therese Doyle (35), was unduly lenient.<\/p>\n
The couple, with a last address at Rosewood Grove, Lucan, had plead guilty to possession with intent to supply and were given a wholly suspended sentence by Judge Martin Nolan at the Circuit Criminal Court, in October 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunate circumstances\u201d surrounding the illness of Mr Justice Michael Hanna meant an earlier appeal through which the judge had sat, had to be heard again before Mr Justice Niall Fennelly, Mr Justice Michael White and Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan today.<\/p>\n
The court was told that 45 kilograms of cannabis with a value of between \u20ac320,000 and \u20ac550,000 stored in 15 silver bags was found in the couple’s home by garda\u00ed in March 2010.<\/p>\n
Counsel for the DPP, Ms Rois\u00edn Lacey BL, said the Director had regard to the entry of an early guilty plea by the couple and referred to Ms Doyle’s instructions to her partner to \u201cshow them where the drugs are Keith\u201d when garda\u00ed entered their home.<\/p>\n
She said the couple had been \u201ccaught red handed,\u201d taking on board and storing drugs while knowingly making a financial gain.<\/p>\n
Ms Lacey accepted that Judge Martin Nolan was a very experienced trial judge but he did not refer in his judgment to the maximum allowable sentence for the offence which had been set out by the Oireachtas.<\/p>\n
She said there was a doubling up of mitigating factors which would have allowed the judge to depart from the mandatory minimum sentence. \u201cThe combination of factors could only arise in a relatively rare number of cases and this was not one of those cases,\u201d counsel said.<\/p>\n
Counsel for Mr Jervis, Giolla\u00edosa \u00d3 Lideadha SC, said a serious submission could not be sustained by the DPP that Judge Nolan, of all judges, was unaware of the relative legislation in reaching his decision.<\/p>\n
He said the law was clear in that the combination of substantial mitigating factors amounted to truly exceptional circumstances. These included their fear of the persons for whom the drugs were stored and the fact that they were not aware of their value prior to storing them.<\/p>\n
Referring to the \u20ac200 – \u20ac300 the couple expected to gain, Mr \u00d3 Lideadha said his client was not a drug dealer who was accumulating wealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat these two people were caught red handed was not correct,\u201d Mr \u00d3 Lideadha said. \u201cIf they had chosen to remain silent they could have pointed the finger at each other and plead that one had concealed the drugs from the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his client had consistently been a positive role model as a father and had held down employment despite his previous heroin addiction.<\/p>\n
Counsel for Ms Doyle, Caroline Biggs SC, quoted Judge Nolan’s ruling when he said \u201cthese individuals are at a very very low level of offending.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her client was not akin to a mule who goes through the airport with a value of drugs in her suitcase.<\/p>\n
Neither party believed they would store a large amount of drugs until the cannabis arrived at their home, by which time it was too late to turn around as they realised they were dealing with very dangerous people, Ms Biggs said.<\/p>\n
The three Judge court said it would reserve judgement until a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Pictured: Therese Doyle (35) leaving the Court of Criminal Appeal)<\/p>\n
By Ruaidhri Giblin<\/p>\n
A Dublin couple who were were given a wholly suspended seven year sentence for storing over half a million euro worth of cannabis in their home must wait to hear if their sentence will in increased.<\/p>\n
The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday reserved judgement in an appeal brought by the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n