Cork man who had cannabis worth €74,000 jailed

Dylan O’Riordan of Beechwood Court, Midleton, County Cork, has been jailed for two and a half years.

Cannabis worth €74,000 was uncovered at the home of a Midleton man and now he has been jailed for two and a half years.

Defence senior counsel Ray Boland said Dylan O’Riordan of Beechwood Court, Midleton, County Cork, was anxious to be sentenced in the case that had been adjourned a number of times even though a further adjournment might have been in his own interests.

Judge James McCourt said it was not a suitable case for an adjournment.

“A prison sentence is unavoidable. An appropriate term before taking into mitigating factors would be four years. Taking them into consideration it would be three years. To encourage you to take up a place in rehabilitation I will suspend the last six months,” Judge McCourt said.

The 23-year-old previously affirmed his pleas of guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court having signed the guilty pleas at district court level.

The charge Detective Garda David O’Shea brought against O’Riordan was one of having cannabis for sale or supply at his home on August 12, 2021, at a time when its street value exceeded €13,000 — the threshold for a possible mandatory minimum jail term of ten years unless the judge finds there are exceptional circumstances.

Mr Boland previously stated that the defendant had no previous convictions.

Detective Garda O’Shea said of the accused: “He was of little or no assistance to the garda investigation.” 

Judge McCourt said that one could take a certain view if the drugs were marginally over €13,000 in value but he said: “The big incontrovertible fact is that of having €74,000 worth of cannabis … You (the accused) have displayed some degree of remorse and some degree of insight — I use the word, some, advisedly.”