Pensioner who held drugs jailed for two years

A pensioner who held heroin worth €150,000 for a drug-dealer has been jailed for two years by Judge Michael White at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Robert Kinsella, aged 63, of Mount Dillon Court, Artane, pleaded guilty to possession for sale or supply of the drugs on March 15, 2002.

Garda Michael Fitzgerald told Ms Isobel Kennedy BL, prosecuting, that he obtained a warrant to search Kinsella's flat after receiving confidential information.

Gardaí were met by Kinsella and asked him if he had anything illegal on the premises.

He denied he had but a subsequent search of the flat uncovered two brown packages, which were later found to contain heroin.

Kinsella was arrested and made certain admissions in relation to the drugs.

He said he was given €100 by another man to hold on to them. He knew they contained a controlled substance but did not know what the drugs were.

Gda Fitzgerald said Kinsella was an unemployed man but did claim an Old Age Pension allowance.

The flat he was living in was OAP accommodation supplied by the Eastern Health Board.

He had a serious gambling problem and this led to the decline of his marriage.

Mr Anthony Sammon SC, for Kinsella, said the sinister criminals who controlled the drug trade preyed on naive and vulnerable people like Kinsella. They couldn't operate without them.

Gda Fitzgerald told Mr Sammon that the man who owned the drugs would have known about Kinsella's gambling problem and for this reason he was targeted .

He added that Kinsella was paid a very paltry sum but if he had not been apprehended he would have continued to hold drugs for such individuals and would eventually find himself in the middle of the vicious drug circle.

Mr Sammon told Judge White his client had no previous convictions, had pleaded guilty at the earliest possible stage and was in poor health.

He was therefore entitled to the maximum leniency from the court and he urged Judge White to detract from the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years because the evidence indicated that such a sentence would be unduly harsh on someone in Kinsella's position.

Judge White said Kinsella had pleaded guilty to a very serious criminal offence and he had the duty to impose a custodial sentence. He was satisfied that exceptional and specific circumstances existed to allow him impose a sentence outside of the mandatory ten years.