Man touched drugs stash while looking for rat

A five-year jail term was imposed yesterday on a man who told gardaí that if his fingerprint was on a drugs stash in his car, it was only because he had been looking for a rat running around inside his car.

Mark Bourke, aged 49, told gardaí he may have touched a stash of drugs leaving his fingerprint on it.

Bourke told gardaí who stopped him at Kilmurry, Co Cork, on December 5, 2014, and found €40,000 worth of ecstasy tablets in his car, that he knew nothing about the drugs. He later admitted the crime.