Cork man who caused drunken disturbance in Cork risked jail time for previous offence of dealing cocaine

Accused was serving fully suspended sentence for being found with cocaine worth €4,000 when he was caught causing disturbance in Cork City

Accused pleaded guilty to having cocaine for sale or supply on May 31, 2022.

A 39-year-old man put himself at risk of three years in jail for dealing cocaine when he came to the attention of gardaí during an unrelated incident.

Daniel Spillane, of St Brigid’s Road, Gurranabraher, Cork, pleaded guilty to having cocaine for sale or supply on May 31, 2022. 

In May 2023, he got a three-year sentence that was fully suspended on condition he would keep the peace and be of good behaviour for the next two years.

However, just before the two years were up, he was caught causing a drunken disturbance in Cork City centre. In April of this year, he got a two-month prison term for that. This triggered the re-entry of the three-year suspended sentence.

Judge Helen Boyle considered this re-entry at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday.

Judge Boyle said to the accused: “You are still coming to Garda attention. You have a good trade. You should be out earning money supporting your family rather than making a nuisance of yourself. If this was a drug-related offence I would be reactivating some or all of the sentence.” 

However, the judge declined to do so because the public order charge was a different type of offence to the original drugs matter. She said the two months he was serving for that was sufficient in the circumstances.

Detective Sergeant Kieran O’Sullivan said the accused was found with a quantity of cocaine in his vehicle when the value of the drugs seized at the time was just over €4,000. 

Judge Catherine Staines said that at the time of the drugs seizure in 2022, the accused was not working and was involved in committing this offence in order to feed his own drugs habit.

Judge Staines said,: “Cocaine is a very serious addiction.” 

Daniel Spillane agreed and said: “It nearly destroyed my life.” 

“His cocaine addiction at the time was out of control and he started sharing it to pay for his own addiction. He has managed to get full-time employment and the shock of being arrested was enough to stop him [taking cocaine],” the judge said, imposing a fully suspended sentence of three years at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.