Cannabis sentences upheld for Choung Vu, Kham Tu and Tuan Cong Le

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal upheld the cannabis cultivation sentences of Choung Vu, Kham Tu and Tuan Cong Le on 8 February 2016. Mr Justice Edwards delivered the judgment.

The court dismissed the Director of Public Prosecutions’ applications to review the sentences as unduly lenient, and Choung Vu’s appeal against sentence severity. It found Kham Tu’s and Tuan Cong Le’s sentences lenient but not unduly lenient. Kham Tu’s consecutive sentences were material to that assessment.

The case arose from the discovery of a cannabis grow house at Ballinlough, Kells, County Meath, on 6 June 2012. Gardaí found 126 cannabis plants.

At Trim Circuit Criminal Court, Kham Tu pleaded guilty to cannabis cultivation on 22 January 2013. Tuan Cong Le pleaded guilty to cultivation on 30 June 2015, the morning their trial was due to begin. The DPP accepted those pleas and later discontinued the other counts against each man.

Choung Vu’s trial began on 30 June 2015 and lasted five days. A jury convicted him of possession for sale or supply, possession, and cultivation of cannabis. On 16 November 2015, the Court of Appeal allowed his appeals against the two possession convictions but upheld his cultivation conviction.

All three were sentenced on 9 July 2015. Choung Vu received six years’ imprisonment with the final three years suspended, backdated to account for three weeks already spent in custody.

Kham Tu received four years’ imprisonment with the final two and a half years suspended. This ran consecutively to a three-year sentence imposed at Naas Circuit Criminal Court on 8 July 2015 for a similar offence. He received no additional credit for time served because Naas Circuit Criminal Court had already taken it into account.

Tuan Cong Le received four years’ imprisonment with the final three years suspended, running from the sentencing date.