Eight years for man who 'failed to learn lesson' from previous convictions

A young Dublin man has been jailed for eight years for possessing €137,000 of heroin and cocaine.

Judge Martin Nolan noted that Karl Clifford (aged 23) didn’t “learn his lesson from the previous two encounters he has had with the law” for drugs offences and said the eight-year sentence was the best he could do.

Clifford, a father-of-one of Cherry Orchard Avenue, Ballyfermot pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing heroin and cocaine worth €137,362 in a navy sports bag in his bedroom on April 7, 2009.

He has 19 previous convictions including two for drugs possession.

Garda Pete McNulty told Mr Colm O’Briain BL, prosecuting, that Clifford immediately took responsibility when colleagues found the drugs cache in his bedroom during a raid on his home following a surveillance operation.

Clifford told gardaí the drugs were his and he had been selling them to offset a cocaine debt.

Garda McNulty agreed with Mr Sean Gillane SC, defending, that his client had no assets or any signs of material benefit from the proceeds of drug sales.

Mr Gillane submitted that his client was at low percentage “intellectual functioning” and had suffered a serious head injury as a child.

Judge Nolan backdated the sentence to when Clifford entered custody a year ago.