Polish man gets eight years for cannabis possession

A Polish man who claimed he found over €54,000 worth of cannabis herb under a tree outside his home has received an eight-year sentence.

Tomasz Przyjemski, aged 25, with an address at Shantalla Road in Beaumont in Dublin told gardaí he was not holding the drugs for anyone, that he was not going to sell them and that he did not have a drug problem.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing 4.5 kilos of the drug at his home on March 27, 2010.

He has three previous convictions for burglary and using a false document and he faces a potential two and a half years in jail for these offences on his return home.

The final two years of the sentence were suspended and a recommendation was made that he be deported immediately on his release.