‘Cowboy’ jailed for role in ‘sabotaging Irish agriculture’

A judge has jailed “a cowboy of the worst kind” for four months after the Co Clare man was “involved in sabotaging Irish agriculture”.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan said Kieran O’Driscoll, of Sunset House, Fanore, “is a man without reputation”, before convicting him of the illegal supply of unauthorised horse medicines in May 2013.

O’Driscoll’s plea of guilty to the offence of importing unauthorised medicines including Detomidine (Domosedan) and Xylazine (Anased) for horses in May 2013 followed the 50-year-old being convicted of 15 similar breaches in January 2012, for which he received a suspended jail term and a fine at Loughrea District Court in April of this year.

Judge Durcan said he did not accept that the May 2013 offences were at the tail end of the activity carried out by O’Driscoll. He said it was not possible for O’Driscoll to redeem his reputation “because this is a man without reputation”.

Judge Durcan said that the smallest breach of agriculture regulations “can have the most catastrophic consequences. O’Driscoll has been involved in sabotaging Irish agriculture”.

He said that O’Driscoll “stepped considerably beyond the mark” in breaching the regulations and that Mr O’Driscoll “is a cowboy of the worst kind with this type of activity”.

Judge Durcan said O’Driscoll had developed a business in the grey area of animal medicines and is a highly intelligent man who has a sense of business and organisation that is not immediately apparent.

Declan Holmes, superintendent in the Investigations Division at the Department of Agriculture, said the postal authorities alerted the department to a suspicious package in May 2013.

The package was opened and resealed by the authorities and put back in the post before it was received by O’Driscoll.

After he picked up the package, he was intercepted by gardaí and was questioned by Department of Agriculture officials under caution.

In evidence, veterinary inspector Caroline Garvan told the court: “We have had cases in the past — one five years ago — where unauthorised animal medicines were brought in and resulted in the death of 10 mares in the Kildare area and cost millions to the economy so it is a serious risk to human and animal health where you bring in an unauthorised remedy.

“You don’t know what is in it, you don’t know what criteria it has been subjected to, if any at all.”

Ms Garvan said only a vet can administer one of the drugs that Mr O’Driscoll was found with “because of its huge side effects and it can only be used in strictly controlled circumstances”.

She said the quantity he imported would be enough to administer to 10 or 20 horses.

In relation to the second substance, Ms Garvan said that it presents “serious concerns in relation to the protection of the food chain as well as animal welfare.

“It is prescribed and supplied by vets only,” she said. “If prescribed, there is an onus on the vet to sign the animal out of the food chain and declare that this horse can’t be slaughtered for human consumption.”

Ms Garvan said that the quantity imported “was enough to treat at least 100 adult horses”.

Solicitor for O’Driscoll, Justin Sadlier, said his client accepts it is a serious matter and has already received an expensive and embarrassing lesson with his conviction at Loughrea that involved a degree of humiliation for O’Driscoll and his family.

O’Driscoll was released on bail pending an appeal after a friend provided an independent surety to the court.