The Court of Appeal has dismissed Wesley Purse’s appeal against the severity of sentences for cannabis offences, leaving in place concurrent prison terms of five years and four years.
Purse pleaded guilty at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court in February 2018 to possessing a controlled drug for unlawful sale or supply, unlawful possession of a controlled drug and cultivating cannabis. In June 2018, he received five years for the sale-or-supply offence and four years for cultivation, to run concurrently from 3 May 2017. The separate possession count was taken into consideration.
The appeal court judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Máire Whelan on 22 July 2019, said Gardaí found 112 cannabis plants at a property in Rossadrehid, Ballydavid, County Tipperary, when they searched it in May 2017. The plants were in two growing areas, including a secured upstairs bedroom adapted for cultivation. Cannabis herb valued at €250 was also found in the kitchen. A valuation of €42,000 for the plants was not disputed; the sentencing judge referred to a value of €40,000.
Purse argued that the sentences were excessive and that the sentencing judge had not given proper weight to his guilty plea, cooperation, remorse, family circumstances and the additional difficulty of serving time in Ireland as a foreign national. He also relied on his expected 12-year sentence in England. The Director of Public Prosecutions opposed the appeal. A separate ground alleging a perception of bias was not pursued at the appeal hearing.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had considered the mitigating factors, including the early guilty plea, admissions, apology, prison conduct and family circumstances. It also found that the judge was entitled to weigh the scale of the operation, the drug valuation and Purse’s previous convictions. The judgment recorded 92 convictions in England and Wales, including 13 drug convictions, and referred to a 12-year sentence imposed in England in 2016 for supplying cocaine.
The appeal court concluded that the sentencing judge had correctly identified headline sentences of eight years for the sale-or-supply offence and six years for cultivation, then reduced them to five and four years respectively. It found no error of principle and held that the concurrent sentences were proportionate. The court dismissed the appeal.