The Court of Appeal has reduced Gavin Minto’s sentence for possessing cannabis, MDMA and Eutylone worth €2,216,530 from eight and a half years to seven years in prison. The sentence is backdated to 23 March 2023, when Minto initially went into custody for the offending.
Minto pleaded guilty to the section 15A Misuse of Drugs Act offence on 31 January 2023. The Court of Appeal said the offence carried a presumptive minimum sentence of 10 years, but the sentencing judge imposed eight and a half years after taking account of Minto’s low level of culpability and other mitigating factors. The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed as respondent; Minto appealed against the severity of his sentence.
The offending was detected during a search of residential premises in Clondalkin on 16 July 2020. Garda evidence at sentencing was that drugs and equipment were found in a rear garage rented to another person. CCTV showed Minto at the property that day, in the company of the garage’s renter, entering and leaving the garage. The court noted that the investigating garda had placed Minto on the “lower rung” of the operation. The drugs’ owner, a relative of Minto, had since died.
The appeal court found that the sentencing judge had not given sufficient weight to a psychologist’s report, including its findings on Minto’s cognitive functioning and his willingness to address his addiction and mental health. The report said Minto would be at low risk of reoffending if he maintained long-term abstinence. The appeal court said this error of principle warranted intervention and quashed the original sentence.
In resentencing, the court set a headline sentence of 11 years, at the lower end of the 11-to-15-year range it considered appropriate for the gravity of the offence. It credited Minto for an early and valuable guilty plea, while finding it difficult to conclude the plea was made at the earliest possible opportunity. The court also considered his personal circumstances, addiction, rehabilitation efforts and the psychological report. It applied a four-year reduction for mitigation rather than suspending part of the sentence.
Although seven years is below the presumptive 10-year minimum, the court found exceptional and specific circumstances that made a sentence of at least 10 years unjust in all the circumstances. It noted that Minto’s police interview yielded nothing of evidential value, but concluded that the other circumstances justified departing from the minimum. The court resentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment.