The Court of Criminal Appeal set aside Patrick Long’s 14-year sentence for a cannabis importation offence after finding it was unclear whether admissions about earlier importations had influenced the sentencing judge. The court then imposed the same 14-year term, saying it had disregarded those admissions when calculating the replacement sentence.
Long had pleaded guilty to a charge relating to possessing controlled drugs for supply. The offence particulars concerned cannabis resin and cannabis herb found in Dublin on 29 May 2003, with an aggregate market value above €13,000. Evidence at sentencing put the quantity at 967 kilograms of cannabis resin and 20 kilograms of cannabis herb, with a claimed street value of about €12 million. The drugs were found on two pallets in the rear of a truck Long was driving.
The sentencing judge, sitting in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, imposed 14 years’ imprisonment on 10 November 2004. The prosecution also introduced evidence of Long’s admissions to three earlier transactions, including two involving cannabis importations. The sentencing judge allowed that evidence because the admissions appeared in the book of evidence.
Long argued on appeal that the judge had wrongly considered matters that could have been separate charges, and that the admissions had helped produce an excessive sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeal said a sentencing judge may consider background material, including admissions, to understand the context of an offence. But the court must not punish an accused for other offences that were neither charged nor admitted for consideration in sentencing.
The appeal court was not satisfied that the sentencing judge had made clear that the earlier-activity admissions did not influence the sentence. It therefore set aside the original term and considered the appropriate sentence itself. The court said it would proceed on the same mitigating circumstances considered below, including Long’s early guilty plea, assistance to gardaí and prior good behaviour. It also noted letters commending his character.
The court described the quantity and value of the drugs, and the commercial basis for the importation, as exceptionally serious aggravating factors. It said the offence warranted a term at the upper end of the scale, potentially 18 years or more, before mitigation. Taking the mitigating factors into account, and expressly excluding the admissions about possible earlier criminal activity, it imposed 14 years’ imprisonment. It said a sentence below the statutory 10-year minimum was inappropriate.