The sentence handed down to a "trusted operative" who was caught on dash-cam footage taking part in a €1.2 million drugs exchange was too lenient, the Court of Appeal has found.
Last May, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Judge Dara Hayes heard John Lindsay (48) was spending up to €1,000 a week on cocaine at the time of the offending and had been trying to reduce a drug debt of €20,000.
Lindsay, of Johnstown Gardens, Finglas East, Dublin 11, pleaded guilty to possession of drugs for sale of supply on March 15th, 2023 and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. At the time of his sentencing, Lindsay had one previous conviction for assault.
Judge Hayes said Lindsay had not owned the drugs in this case, but was acting in a warehousing and delivery capacity, assisting in their onwards transmission for the forgiveness of his drug debt.
The judge noted that such a volume of drugs would not be given without a significant degree of trust.
At the sentence hearing, Detective Garda Marguerite Reilly told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, that gardaí had mounted an operation monitoring the movements of individuals in north Dublin on foot of confidential information.
Garda Reilly said Lindsay was observed picking up a co-accused in Artane, who had an empty holdall bag. He then drove to another location where the co-accused was picked up in a second car and driven off.
The second car was later stopped and heroin with a value of €831,000 was recovered in a holdall bag in the footwell of the vehicle. Lindsay was seen on dash cam footage handing the co-accused a shopping bag, which was later found inside the holdall bag and had heroin inside.
Lindsay’s home at the time was searched and a further €420,000 of heroin was recovered. Lindsay made admission to owning the drugs in the house and told gardaí of his drug debt.
The State successfully appealed the length of the sentence on the grounds of undue leniency.
At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Mr Justice Isobel Kennedy said the court would increase the sentence by 18 months after noting that Lindsay had been a “trusted” operative in a wider drug operation.
Ms Justice Kennedy said the trial judge had been satisfied that extraordinary circumstances in the case meant the presumptive minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment should not apply, something the three-judge court disagreed with.
Ms Justice Kennedy said that a pre-mitigation headline sentence of 6.5 years identified by the trial judge amounted to an error in principle and that the original sentence was to be quashed.
Ms Justice Kennedy said the value of the drugs involved was “very high indeed and added to that it was diamorphine [heroin]”.
The judge said that while Lindsay was not being paid for his role in transporting and holding the drugs, he had done so to “reduce his recognised drug debt”, which was to his advantage.
Ms Justice Kennedy said that comparative cases of possession of drugs for sale and supply in the million euro-plus category carried an average of a six and three-quarter year jail term.
Ms Justice Kennedy said Lindsay was not merely a subservient actor but was a “trusted” member of a group involved in moving and distributing drugs and that he did so with the assistance of others.
The headline sentence of 6.5 years amounted to a “significant departure from the norm and was unduly lenient, said Ms Justice Kennedy, who then quashed the original sentence.
In re-sentencing Lindsay, Ms Justice Kennedy said an appropriate headline sentence was 10 years. In identifying the mitigating factors in the case, Ms Justice Kennedy commended Lindsay for being a person "always there" for his family and said the court had regard to his work record, that he had raised funds for charity, that he was held in high regard by various people and the gap since his previous offending was over 20 years.
Ms Justice Kennedy also commended Lindsay for his rehabilitation from his drug addiction and for the fact that he was doing well in prison as an enhanced-status prisoner and had received a favourable governor’s report.
The mitigating factors in the case were to be recognised in a four-year deduction from the 10-year headline sentence, she said.
Ms Justice Kennedy said the final two years of the six years would be suspended in the interests of Lindsay’s ongoing rehabilitation.
At the appeal hearing, Diarmuid Collins BL, for the State, successfully submitted that Lindsay had been engaged in “high-level” distribution of heroin involving two vacuum-packed tranches of the drug discovered at two different locations.
Mr Collins said Lindsay was a “vital cog” in the operation and was "not a street dealer”.
