The Court of Appeal quashed a six-year prison sentence imposed on Richard Molloy for possessing equipment and materials for counterfeiting currency, finding that the sentencing judge had not adequately explained how she accounted for mitigation. The appeal court resentenced him to five years and six months, with the final 18 months suspended subject to a bond after his release.
Molloy had pleaded guilty to having custody or control of materials or implements for counterfeiting currency. A separate charge of delivering counterfeit currency was taken into consideration at sentencing. He appealed the severity of his sentence.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had identified aggravating and mitigating factors but had not stated the starting point for the sentence or the overall discount allowed for mitigation. That left the appeal court unable to tell whether sufficient allowance had been made. It found a significant error of principle and quashed the six-year sentence.
The evidence described a February 2014 exchange in a Dublin pub: Molloy handed a package to another man and took a different package in return. Gardaí found 400 counterfeit €50 notes, with a purported value of €20,000, in the other man’s package. Molloy had €2,234.38 in legitimate cash. A search of a commercial unit leased to him in Dunboyne uncovered printing equipment, completed counterfeit notes with a purported value of €189,000 and partly completed notes estimated at about €2 million.
The appeal court placed the offence toward the upper end of the available penalty range, citing its planning, financial purpose, the scale of the material and the involvement of people the court said Molloy knew were associated with the IRA. It assessed an appropriate headline sentence as eight years. In setting the final term, it allowed 30 months for mitigation, including his guilty plea, previous good character, alcohol dependency, personal and financial difficulties, his seriously ill partner at the time of sentencing, and his relationship with his daughter.
The court also considered a prison manager’s letter describing Molloy’s conduct and participation in work and training programmes as exemplary and his engagement with Alcoholics Anonymous. It suspended the final 18 months of the new sentence on condition that Molloy enter a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for two years after release. The resulting sentence is five years and six months’ imprisonment, with that final period suspended.