Reduced sentences for men caught with €2.5m worth of cannabis

Two Dublin men caught in possession of €2.5m worth of cannabis resin have had their ten and 14-year sentences reduced by a total of three years on appeal.

Anthony Tiernan (aged 50) of Castletimon Green, Kilmore West and John Lynch (aged 48) of Castlekevin Apartments, Coolock had both pleaded guilty to possessing 263.8kg of cannabis resin valued at €1.85m at Lynch’s home address on May 20, 2009.

Lynch also pleaded guilty to possessing a further 360 slabs of the drug worth €630,000, which was found in a van parked outside the apartment block on the same date.

In July 2010 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Desmond Hogan imposed a 14-year sentence on Lynch but suspended the final two years on strict conditions. He imposed a 10-year sentence on Tiernan, who he said had a slightly lesser role, and suspended the final two years.

The Court of Criminal Appeal this afternoon determined that in sentencing the men Judge Hogan had committed an error in principle by failing to have sufficient regard to the mitigating factors in the case.

Presiding judge Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan said the court would substitute the sentence imposed on Lynch with one of 12 years with two years suspended and would affirm Tiernan’s 10-year sentence but increase the suspended portion to three years.

The court heard that gardaí raided John Lynch’s Coolock apartment to find him and Anthony Tiernan loading 1,055 cannabis resin slabs from tile boxes into black holdall bags for distribution.

Detectives testified that father-of-three Lynch told them he was getting around €1,750 to repackage the drugs and that Tiernan was giving him a hand with the job.

Both Ms Kathleen Leader BL for Tiernan, and Mr Padraig Dwyer SC, for Lynch, today submitted that Judge Hogan failed to have sufficient regard to favourable reports submitted to the court on behalf of both men.

Mr Dwyer said that Judge Hogan did not have due regard to the fact that Lynch, who has four previous convictions for road traffic offences, for practical purposes came before the court as a man of previous good character.

The appeal court was asked to have regard to the plea of guilty proffered by father-of-two Tiernan, who has six previous convictions including one for assault in 1986.