Man who suffered ‘unfathomable tragedy’ spared jail

A man who suffered “unfathomable tragedy” in his personal life has avoided jail after being caught with €30,000 of a cutting agent sometimes used with cocaine.

The court heard Noel Fitzgerald, aged 48, was a well-respected member of his inner city community and this offence was “wildly out of character.”

Fitzgerald, of St Michans House, Greek Street, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of benzocaine in circumstances which gave rise to the reasonable inference that it was for a purpose connected to a drug trafficking offence on April 22, 2015.