Man gets 10 years for drugs stash

A man on temporary release from a prison sentence for the most serious type of drugs crime was caught running from a car with a stash of amphetamines and cannabis in a sports bag.

The car, driven by another man, was the subject of an extensive Garda surveillance operation and came crashing to a halt a few miles from Horse and Jockey on the main Cork to Dublin Road after a garda pursuit. Detective Garda Kathleen Pearse told the court yesterday Thomas McCarthy, aged 33, from 7 Oakfield Drive, Thurles, Co Tipperary, fled the car with the drugs stash.

McCarthy jumped over a crash barrier and down a steep embankment discarding the drugs as he fled.

His senior counsel, Michael Durack, said McCarthy only got about 20m from the car when he was caught and arrested on November 7, 2011.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, McCarthy was sentenced by Judge Donagh McDonagh to 10 years in prison, the sentence to be reviewed in five years.

Det Garda Pearse said McCarthy was given a five-year sentence in 2008 for having drugs with a street value in excess of €13,000. He was granted temporary release on that sentence in May 2011. While out of prison he was caught with the amphetamines and cannabis, again with a street value in excess of €13,000.