A "soft touch" drug dealer who was caught with cocaine and cannabis worth over €28,000 has been sent to jail after the Court of Appeal ruled that a Circuit Court judge was wrong to fully suspend his original sentence.
“The legislation has shown how serious these offences are by laying down a presumptive minimum sentence,” said Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy on Thursday, imposing a three-year sentence with the final 18 months suspended on Dylan Clements (29).
Clements, with an address in Finglas, pleaded guilty on March 2nd 2023 to one count of possession of drugs for sale or supply contrary to Section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act and was sentenced by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court the following day.
The remaining four counts on the indictment, two counts of possession of cannabis and cocaine for sale or supply and two counts of possession of cannabis and cocaine, were taken into consideration.
In an appeal against the leniency of the sentence imposed, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) stated in submissions that gardaí obtained and executed a warrant to search the home of the respondent on August 3rd 2021. Clements was present in his upstairs bedroom and outlined to gardaí that he had cannabis resin in his possession, which he handed over to gardaí.
He also outlined that there was a bag of cocaine in his chest of drawers and a further search of his bedroom resulted in a large block of cocaine being found.
The total value of the cocaine found was €26,575 and the cannabis was valued at €2,220.
At the Court of Appeal in April, Tom O’Malley SC, for the DPP, argued that the sentencing court failed to attach sufficient weight to the gravity of the offence, for which the maximum penalty is life imprisonment, and the existence of a presumptive mandatory minimum sentence of ten years.
At that hearing, Mr Justice McCarthy said the appeal court had a “very clear view” that the trial judge fell into error, in particular by his failure to apply the law as laid down in recent case law. He said the sentence had been unduly lenient and there was no evidence of “special circumstances” of an “extraordinary nature” to give rise to the suspension of the entirety of the sentence.
The court ordered that a probation report be prepared and adjourned the matter to quash the original sentence and resentence the respondent.
At the re-sentencing on Thursday, Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, for the respondent, said that her client was of limited intelligence and described him as “a soft touch”.
She said that in the 18 months since his sentence, he has not come to the attention of the gardaí at all, and he has no previous convictions.
Mr Justice John Edwards said that the difficulty for the defence was that the Oireachtas set minimum sentences for these types of offence, which emphasises the seriousness of this type of offending and the “deleterious effect” drugs have on society.
“It is difficult to see how one could stand over a fully suspended sentence,” he said.
Ms Lawlor said that the respondent had an unblemished character and a very good work history, but he had developed a drug addiction which had led to him incurring "an ongoing rolling debt".
She said that if the court decided he were to be incarcerated, the effect on him would be enormous, to which Mr Justice McCarthy remarked that this is the same for all first-time offenders.
Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said that a report from Clements' employer indicated he was doing very well in his job, as he was hardworking and trustworthy. Ms Lawlor asked the court not to put an end to this real rehabilitative effort he was making.
In delivering the court’s sentence, Mr Justice McCarthy said that the important factors to be considered were the amount and value of the drugs, as was the fact that the respondent was engaged in dealing drugs.
Setting the appropriate headline sentence at four years, Mr Justice McCarthy said that there were considerable factors in the evidence that mitigated this sentence, but the court was of the opinion that it could not justify a wholly suspended sentence.
“The legislation has shown how serious these offences are by laying down a presumptive minimum sentence,” he said.
He said the post-mitigation sentence was three years, with the final 18 months suspended on condition the respondent enter into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, engage with the addiction services, and attend all his probation appointments.
