Man gets eight years for role in cocaine conspiracy

A Fingal man has been jailed for eight years for his role in a €600,000 cocaine conspiracy.

David Timmons (aged 25) of Chapel Gate, Balbriggan was convicted by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last December, of conspiracy to possess cocaine worth around €600,000 on September 14, 2006.

Timmons, originally from Swords, was found guilty by the jury of conspiring with "JG" and "BT" to possess the 8.83kg of cocaine which was hidden in a lorry load of quilts at Killane’s Furniture Store outside Lusk.

The jury of six men and six women spent over four hours deliberating before returning a 10-2 majority verdict on day seven of his trial.

Judge Patricia Ryan refused an application to suspend a portion of the term and ordered his sentence be backdated to the date of his arrest.

She acknowledged evidence given by Timmons’s 19-year-old fiancé and mother of his child that her partner helped her with depression and took her first child "as his own".

Ms Deirdre Griffin told defence counsel, Mr Feargal Kavanagh SC, that she was back on antidepressant medicine following her partner’s incarceration but would hope to "rebuild their lives" when he is released from prison.

His co-accused, Brian Thompson (aged 48), of Silverwell Road, Croxteth, Liverpool was given a five year sentence in December 2007 after he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring with others in the possession of the same cache of cocaine on September 14, 2006.

Judge Katherine Delahunt noted that Thompson had beaten his heroin addiction in 1987 but relapsed in 2002 when she said: "You fell in with serious criminals who obviously trusted you to give you such responsibility."