Courts / Meath / Report
Suspended sentence for Dublin father caught with over 15,000 prescription tablets
Summary
Gavin Kinsella, 27, pleaded guilty to unlawfully keeping prescription‑only medication for supply at his home in Summerhill Parade. He was found with 15,908 Zopiclone tablets and a small amount of cannabis during a Garda surveillance operation from 14 to 20 December 2013. The tablets, worth €1 each, were not available in Irish pharmacies and are prescribed for short‑term insomnia and anxiety. Kinsella claimed he was holding the drugs for someone else to pay a cocaine debt. He has 12 prior convictions, all dealt with in the District Court. Judge Martin Nolan revoked his bail, remanded him pending sentencing, and on 21 December 2013 sentenced him to a three‑year prison term suspended on strict conditions, citing his admissions, cooperation with Gardaí and prospects for rehabilitation. The sentence was imposed at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The case was prosecuted by Tony McGillicuddy BL.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Suspended sentence for Dublin father caught with over 15,000 prescription tablets. Charges or matters: unlawfully keeping for supply a prescription only medicinal product at his home in Summerhill Parade on December 21, 2013. Procedural stage: sentence
When:
- December 21, 2013 Adjournment
- December 14 Hearing Or Sentence
- December 20, 2013 Hearing Or Sentence
- June 2012 Incident
- 2015-12-21 Publication
Why: He claimed he was minding the drugs for someone else in order to pay off a cocaine debt which he had trouble clearing. CNI source report
Case subjects
Defendant
Charges: unlawfully keeping for supply a prescription only medicinal product at his home in Summerhill Parade on December 21, 2013 (Admitted)
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: Judge Martin Nolan had revoked Kinsella's bail last week and remanded him in custody pending sentence today. The judge said Kinsella was not a chemist and didn't have prescriptions for the drugs but he said he was a young man with prospects. "I have decided not to imprison him immediately due to his admissions, co-operation with the gardaí and hopes for rehabilitation," Judge Nolan said, before he sentenced Kinsella to three years in prison which he suspended on strict conditions.; Judge Martin Nolan had revoked Kinsella's bail last week and remanded him in custody pending sentence today.
Places mentioned
- Dublin
- Dublin Circuit Criminal Court
Topics
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