Former Dublin minor hurler gets eight years

A former Dublin minor hurler who left his social security card in a holdall bag containing €44,000 worth of cannabis resin has been sentenced to eight years in prison by Judge Katherine Delahunt.

Patrick Casey (aged 19) of Casino Park, Marino, who had no previous convictions, dumped the bag on a railway line in Killester because he didn’t want the drugs near his family home.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs for sale or supply on August 31, 2006.

Judge Delahunt suspended the last two years of the sentence after taking into consideration that Casey had accepted responsibility for the drugs and fully co-operated with the garda investigation.

"You were a talented athlete and may have gone on to bigger and better things but unfortunately your involvement in this crime has brought an end to that," she told Casey.

Garda Daniel Prenty told Mr Sean Gillane BL, prosecuting, that the bag was found in undergrowth next to the railway. When Casey’s social security card was found in a pocket in the bag a warrant was obtained to search a house he was associated with.

Casey took full responsibility straight away and told gardai that he believed the drugs were worth €10,000. He claimed they were for his own personal use and said he had no intention of selling them nor was he holding them for someone else.

Gda Prenty agreed with Mr Gerry O’Brien SC, defending, that gardai were satisfied Casey was holding the drugs for somebody else and had been promised €1,000 to carry out this role.

He accepted that Casey had just lost his job at at the time and was under financial pressure at the time because he was unable to make repayments on a bank loan.

Gda Prenty said he was aware that Casey had played minor hurling with Dublin and that he had won a Lenister medal in his time with the club. He had also played for Shellbourne’s under-16 team.

Mr O’Brien said Casey was a recreational user of a cannabis resin at the time of the offences.