The Court of Appeal has reduced Gary Byrne’s effective prison term to seven-and-a-half years for his role in two cannabis seizures worth almost €2.5 million at Rosemount Business Park in Ballycoolin, Dublin 15.
Byrne had pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of possessing controlled drugs for sale or supply. He originally received concurrent 12-year sentences, with the final three years suspended, leaving nine years to serve.
In the first incident, Garda surveillance tracked Byrne from a petrol station to Unit 4C at the business park. He entered the premises and was stopped as he left. A search uncovered 78.375kg of cannabis herb with a street value exceeding €1.5 million.
Nearly three weeks later, Gardaí used keys found in Byrne’s possession to search another unit in the same business park. They found just under €1 million worth of cannabis herb.
The Court of Appeal accepted that the 12-year headline sentence was appropriate because of the scale of the drugs operation and Byrne’s previous drugs-related conviction. It also agreed that the sentencing judge had been entitled to depart from the statutory presumptive minimum of ten years because exceptional circumstances existed.
However, the appeal court found an error in the amount of mitigation allowed. It said insufficient weight had been given to Byrne’s comparatively minor role as a “runner”, his history of homelessness, depression, suicidal ideation and drug addiction, and his low risk of reoffending with strong family support.
The court also considered evidence of progress Byrne had made in prison and supportive evidence from Detective Garda Carey.
The 12-year headline term was retained, but the suspended portion was increased from three years to four-and-a-half years. Byrne was therefore required to serve seven-and-a-half years, with the suspended period applying for three years after release.