The Court of Appeal found that the wholly suspended five-year sentence imposed on Jonathan Mannion for possessing cannabis with intent to sell or supply was unduly lenient. It replaced that sentence with two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered that he did not have to return to prison. The court dismissed the Director of Public Prosecutions’ application concerning John Martyn, whose five-year sentence, also wholly suspended, it found very lenient but not unduly so.
The men pleaded guilty in the Circuit Criminal Court in Galway in December 2013. They were arrested in October 2012 after gardaí stopped a car at Loughrea and found cannabis in a box in its boot. The judgment put the drugs’ street value at about €200,000. The men were sentenced in March 2015.
The sentencing judge had deferred sentence for about a year while the men were subject to probation supervision and reports. Mannion spent about eight months in custody during the process, then was released on strict bail terms. The Court of Appeal treated that time in custody, allowing for remission, as equivalent to about a year in prison when reviewing his sentence.
The DPP argued that Mannion should have received an immediate custodial sentence, citing the value of the drugs, the seriousness of the offence and his previous convictions. The appeal court said an immediate, significant prison sentence is the norm for offences of this kind, with non-custodial outcomes reserved for rare cases. It concluded Mannion’s sentence was unduly lenient, particularly given the drugs’ value and his previous convictions, including a relevant drugs conviction.
In resentencing him, the court also considered his rehabilitation, further reports and his return to education. It imposed a two-year prison term but suspended it for two years. The court said Mannion had already served the equivalent of a year in custody and cited his rehabilitation, the circumstances of his release and the DPP’s acquiescence in that approach as reasons not to send him back to prison.
Martyn had no previous convictions, had spent no time in custody and had positive probation reports. The court noted his lesser role and evidence of rehabilitation, including a successful career in Galway. It dismissed the DPP’s application in his case, leaving his wholly suspended five-year sentence in place.