Man caught with cannabis grow tent gets €500 fine

Gardaí with a warrant carried out a search at a house on Dublin Street in Blackpool and found over €5,000 worth of drugs, some of them in a grow tent set up with a special light and extractor fan.

That was two years ago, and yesterday at Cork District Court, Judge Con O’Leary noted that the accused man, Noel Darcy, had gone from being a medium risk for re-offending to being a low risk.

The judge said in all the circumstances he would finalise the case with fines totalling €500 against Darcy, 26, for cultivating cannabis and having it for sale or supply.

Two men were living in the house at the time. Noel Darcy pleaded guilty to his part in the drug crime detected at 1 Dublin St, Blackpool, Cork, on June 14, 2013.

Inspector Mary King said yesterday that Garda Aidan O’Donoghue and his colleagues went to the house that day on foot of confidential information in relation to drug activity.

The officers conducted a search of the premises and in one room they found three large pieces of cannabis plant hanging upside-down to dry in a wardrobe.

Also in the wardrobe was a flat piece of cardboard with several pieces of cannabis on it and a shoe box with more pieces of cannabis on that.

In a further search upstairs in a spare room in what was a communal part of the house, the gardaí found a black zip-up tent with four cannabis plants growing inside.

€350 in cash and a ‘tick list’ with names and amounts of money written beside each name were also found.

The total amount of drugs found had a street value of over €5,900.

Noel Darcy had no previous convictions. Judge O’Leary previously put him on a probation bond for 12 months on the charge of possession for his own use.

The more serious supply charge was adjourned until yesterday for sentencing.