The Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence of a man who pleaded guilty to transporting cannabis worth €480,000 from 12 years’ imprisonment, with the final two years suspended, to five years and four months. The sentence is backdated to 7 February 2019, when he was first lodged in custody.
The man, identified in the judgment as Dung Tran, appealed the sentence imposed on 11 July 2019 for possessing a controlled drug worth more than €13,000 for sale or supply. The offence carries a presumptive minimum sentence of 10 years, although a court may go below it if exceptional and specific circumstances would make that term unjust.
Gardaí stopped Tran’s car on the M9 near Kilkenny on 6 February 2019 after observing it travelling at an estimated 160km/h. A garda noticed a strong smell of cannabis. A search found six deals of cannabis on Tran and five sacks in the boot containing vacuum-packed packages of suspected cannabis herb. The judgment put the seized drugs’ estimated value at €480,000.
Tran told gardaí he had been instructed by a Chinese man to drive to a location, where his car was loaded, and then take the drugs to a destination. He was to be paid €1,000. The judgment described him as a courier at the lower end of the organisation, while also finding that he knew what he was doing and stood to benefit financially.
The sentencing judge had set a 16-year starting point, reduced it to 12 years for mitigation, then suspended the final two years for five years. The Court of Appeal held that the 16-year starting point was excessive for Tran’s role and quashed the sentence. It set a new starting point of eight years, then reduced that by one third to five years and four months, taking account of his cooperation, early guilty plea, personal circumstances, employment record, family support and lack of previous convictions.
Because that sentence was below the 10-year presumptive minimum, the court considered whether the statutory exception applied. It found exceptional and specific circumstances: Tran had cooperated from the outset, made admissions, and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, about three months after the offence. The court was satisfied that imposing 10 years would be unjust. It resentenced him to five years and four months, backdated to 7 February 2019.