Community service for UCD dropout with €20,000 ecstasy

A south city UCD dropout who was found transporting over €20,000 worth of "ecstasy" tablets in a borrowed car "as a favour" is to be assessed for community service in lieu of three years imprisonment.

Claire Hanrahan (aged 21), of Terenure Road East pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of "ecstasy" for sale or supply at Winetavern Street and at Comeragh Road, Drimnagh on December 14, 2005.

Judge Katherine Delahunt referred the case to the Probation Service to assess Hanrahan’s suitability for community service in lieu of three year jail term "to see if you can repay to the community some of the damage your behaviour would have caused".

She noted that Hanrahan had been diagnosed as an insulin dependent diabetic shortly before the incident and medical reports suggested that a "cognitive deficit" may have occurred as a result leading to mental instability which would explain her "complete personality transformation" during this time.

Garda Corina Carroll told Mr Garnet Orange BL, prosecuting, that she searched a car that Hanrahan was driving at Winetavern Street on foot of confidential information.

She said she found two clear plastic bags in Hanrahan’s handbag containing "ecstasy" tablets valued at €20,060.

A search of the bedroom of the apartment where Hanrahan was living at the time yielded a further €540 of "ecstasy" and a quantity of cannabis resin valued at €34.

Gda Carroll said that during interview Hanrahan told them that she had earlier collected the tablets and brought them to a person as a favour. She said this person had counted out 2,000 tablets for her to bring to someone else and it was in the course of this second trip she was stopped.

She agreed with Mr John Nolan BL, defending Hanrahan, that the car was not hers and that she immediately admitted her guilt. She agreed that there had been a "degree of naivety" on her part.

She told Judge Delahunt that she believed the tablets were being transported as a "favour" and did not think any money was going to change hands.

Ms Martina Hanrahan, mother of the accused, told Mr Nolan that her daughter had been a "very good student" and she "had great hopes for her".

She said her daughter had wanted a year out after school but she had persuaded her to go to UCD, which Hanrahan found "unstructured" and, despite her pleas, Hanrahan had left college six weeks before she was due to sit her exams. Her daughter was also diagnosed with diabetes which came as a "total shock".

Ms Hanrahan said she tried to exercise "tough love" with her daughter and told her to go out and find a job and flat, not expecting her to actually do so. She said this incident was "out of character" for her daughter and she was now living back at the family home.

Mr Nolan submitted that Hanrahan had become "disaffected" at UCD and after moving out of the family home her "lifestyle had to be funded".

He said she had "cooperated to the highest degree with the gardaí" and was now back in the family home and in employment.