Young man in possession of firearms gets five years
A young man who was made hold a weapons cache, including a machine gun and silencer, because he had run up a drug debt with a criminal gang has been jailed for five years.
This was the second time Karl Bowes (24) had been caught with a weapon which he claimed he was made hold. In 2007 he received community service for possession of a handgun which he said was given to him by people he was “in fear of”.
Bowes of Connolly Lodge, Buckingham Street, pleaded guilty to possession of a Czech-made Luger revolver and a “knock off” Ingram “Mac 10” machine gun at his family home at Clonshaugh Drive, Coolock on June 6, 2010.
He was also found with a magazine for the machine gun, six handgun bullets, 33 machine gun bullets and a silencer.
The court heard the machine gun was an illicit copy but was in full working order along with the other items found.
Bowes told gardai his family had been threatened by the gang and that they had held a gun to his head and put him in a car boot. He had racked up a €35,000 drug debt and was made hold the guns in part repayment.
Judge Yvonne Murphy accepted that Bowes had taken full responsibility for the weapons, had co-operated with the gardai and had been under duress.
“He had involved himself in a drug deal that had gone sour leaving him with debts he was not able to pay off and he had to store these weapons to clear them,” Judge Murphy said.
She said that Bowes’s mother, who gave evidence at the sentence hearing earlier this month was, “a very respectable woman who had taken very good care of her children”.
Judge Murphy also accepted that Bowes had been greatly affected by his father’s death and added that she had “no doubt that had his father not died when he was so young, he may not have got involved in criminality”.
Detective Garda Louise McHugh told prosecuting counsel, Mr Shane Costelloe BL, that gardai went to Bowes’s family home after getting a tip-off that he was holding guns. His mother let them in and the firearms were found in a front bedroom and in the garden shed.
Bowes was arrested and made full admissions. He said he had been given the weapons two days previously by the gang but refused to identify them.
Det Gda McHugh agreed with defence counsel, Mr Patrick Marrinan SC, that Bowes “has none of the hallmarks of a hardened or seasoned criminal”.
She said he became emotional during his interview and threatened to take his own life but that she told him she would look after him.
She further agreed that he had “a decent streak” in him.
Mr Marrinan said that Bowes’ father had died when he was 16 year old and this had a huge effect on him. He further submitted that he had entered a very early guilty plea and had gone into custody voluntarily after his arrest.
