Cork taxi driver caught with €100k cocaine in roof sign jailed
Andrew Dineen, aged 61, with an address at Sovereign House, Oysterhaven, Co Cork, was 47 when he committed the offence on October 21, 2003, and while he did plead guilty to having drugs for sale or supply on May 14, 2004, he then absconded to England where he remained until recently.
Detective Sergeant Lar O’Brien testified yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the taxi was stopped by drugs squad gardaí at Camden Quay, Cork, on the night of October 21, 2003.
Dineen was driving the taxi. A search was conducted and a little over a kilo of cocaine was found stashed inside the taxi sign on the roof.
Interviewed after his initial arrest Dineen admitted travelling to Dublin to collect drugs and ferry them to Cork.
He claimed his belief at the time was that the drugs were cannabis, but Judge Séan Ó Donnabháin was sceptical about that point.
Sinead Behan said Dineen was acting as a courier at the time. She said he had a family in Cork previously and went on to start a new family in England since he went there in 2004.
In 2011, gardaí were approached by a relative of the accused about him coming back but nothing came of it at that time. Since then he suffered ill health and decided that he would return to Cork.
Judge Ó Donnabháin said if the accused had stayed around to face his sentence it would have been long behind him now. Ms Behan accepted that but said that people did not always make the right decisions when they were under pressure.
Judge Ó Donnabháin said: “It was a significant amount of drugs and his involvement was principle (compared with a passenger in the car who was also involved in the deal and previously sentenced for his part).
“He all but denied himself the benefit of the guilty plea by absconding. He was doing this for money and he knowingly absconded and went to England.”
The judge then imposed a seven-year sentence with the last two years suspended.
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