Cork drug dealer facing jail offended again to 'raise money for family'

Judge tells accused he was extremely foolish to deal again while facing a serious drugs charge

The accused ended up receiving a further six months imprisonment on top of what he was already serving.

A man facing jail on a serious drug-dealing charge responded to the imminent sentence by dealing more drugs to try to put some money together.

Detective Garda Darren Twomey testified at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that gardaí observed Brian Collins involved in drug-related transactions on July 22, 2022.

They secured a search warrant for his home at Noonan Road on the basis of the information they gathered on that occasion.

A short time later, they went to the 51-year-old’s home and carried out a search.

They recovered €1,460 worth of cannabis.

The defendant cooperated with the search in that he indicated to the gardaí where they would find the drugs and readily hand them over.

An aggravating factor for Collins was that he had two previous convictions for dealing drugs in 2015 and 2016 and a further conviction for having drugs for sale or supply when its street value exceeded €13,000 — the most serious drug-dealing offence.

Paula McCarthy, defence barrister, said he was fully cooperative and made admissions.

Judge Helen Boyle was told that the accused was about to be sentenced within days — last July — for that more serious drugs offence when he went dealing again. Ms McCarthy said he was desperate to have some money to give his family before he was jailed.

Judge Boyle said this way of thinking was extremely foolish for a man facing a serious drugs case.

It also meant that, because he was on bail for one offence when he committed another, the sentence had to be consecutive.

Judge Boyle then imposed an 18-month sentence, consecutive to the longer prison term, but she suspended the final 12 months of that.

In effect, the accused ended up getting six months imprisonment on top of what he is presently serving. The sentence being served already was a term of three years imposed on him within days of being caught for the present offence last July.