Judge: Leave country or serve eight years

A man from the Czech Republic has until Sunday to get out of Ireland or else he will have to serve eight years in prison.

Jan Fesar returned to Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday with a boarding pass for a flight to Prague on February 21. Judge Donagh McDonagh gave Jan Fesar that option instead of eight years in jail for a drugs crime in Cork.

Fesar was caught with three kilos of cannabis herb vacuum packed and sealed to look like packets of coffee in Cork.

The sentencing judge gave him two options — return to the Czech Republic or serve eight years in prison in Ireland. He took the first option.

Jan Fesar, aged 33, who was living at an address at Manor Drive, Thornbury, Rochestown, Cork, came to the attention of Detective Garda Eoin O’Toole who first became suspicious of the car when he saw it parked at the carpark of the cinema at Douglas East on May 1, 2015.

What drew his attention to the car was that the driver’s window was open even though it was raining.

Once alerted the detective kept his eyes on the car and then noticed that the driver of the parked car was constantly checking his phone and appeared to be agitated.

Det Gda O’Toole approached the driver and informed him of his suspicions and that he was going to search the car under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

In the boot he found three professionally packed kilos of cannabis.

Fesar claimed that he believed that the packets contained coffee.

He said he met a fellow Czech Republic national who asked him to mind the coffee for him as he was returning home for a period and that he agreed. Fesar said this encounter occurred in a pub in Cork City.

He later admitted at Cork Circuit Criminal Court having cannabis with a street value exceeding €13,000 at the carpark of the cinema at Douglas East on May 1.

“I think the appropriate sentence is eight years but I will suspend the whole of that sentence for a period of 10 years on condition that he leave the country immediately, returning to the Czech Republic and not returning to Ireland for that 10 years,” the judge said.

Man had 3kg of cannabis packed to look like coffee