The Court of Appeal has dismissed Gabriel Olatunbosun’s appeal against the severity of sentences for drug offences, leaving in place three concurrent four-year terms with the final year suspended. Those sentences run consecutively to an 18-month sentence for assault, producing an aggregate term of five and a half years, with the final year suspended.
The judgment, delivered on 1 July 2020, says the drug sentences arose from offences committed on 8 October 2018, while Olatunbosun was on bail for assault and possession of a knife. He pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing controlled drugs for sale or supply, relating to cannabis, cocaine and MDMA. Three simple possession charges were taken into consideration at sentencing.
Evidence before the sentencing court was that gardaí searched a shared house in Cork where Olatunbosun had a bedroom. They seized drugs valued at €6,107, €3,900 in cash, mixing agent, scales, drug bags and customer lists. The judgment records that he admitted dealing to about 50 or 60 customers in Cork city centre, taking responsibility for preparing and selling the drugs, and earning about €4,000 a month over roughly 12 months. He did not identify his supplier or the person who had provided the apartment.
The sentencing judge set a provisional six-year term for the drug offences, then reduced it by a further third to four years to recognise that Olatunbosun had entered an early signed guilty plea. The Court of Appeal said this additional reduction was generous and found no error in how the plea was considered. It also held that the sentencing judge had taken account of Olatunbosun’s lack of previous convictions.
The appeal court accepted that the sentencing judge had not expressly referred to the totality principle when dealing with the consecutive sentences. It concluded, however, that suspending the final year adequately addressed any slight disproportionality in the combined term. It said the sentencing judge had no discretion to avoid making the drug sentences consecutive because the offences were committed while Olatunbosun was on bail.
The court declined to permit most additional grounds concerning Olatunbosun’s personal circumstances, including his age and social connections, because they had not been properly added to the appeal. It considered the remaining grounds and concluded the sentences were not excessive. The appeal was dismissed.