Warren Nolan has prison term increased after shotgun offence

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Warren Nolan’s prison term was increased to five years on 21 March 2017 after the Director of Public Prosecutions successfully sought a review for undue leniency. The proceedings were reported on 22 March 2017.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances, possessing drugs, dangerous driving, reckless endangerment and driving without a licence. The firearm and drug offences occurred on 8 June 2015. The dangerous driving, reckless endangerment and driving without a licence occurred in Clondalkin on 4 June 2015.

Judge Karen O’Connor originally sentenced him on 25 July 2016 to five years’ imprisonment with the final 18 months suspended. At the later review, Justice John Edwards, sitting with Justice George Birmingham and Justice Alan Mahon, quashed that term and imposed a new five-year sentence with the same commencement date.

The report said Garda Gavin Curran approached the vehicle where Nolan was seated and found himself two feet from the shotgun barrel. He retreated, another armed garda drew his weapon and Nolan was arrested. The firearm was unloaded and no ammunition was found.

Gerardine Small BL, for the DPP, argued that the sentencing judge had wrongly placed the offence in the mid-range and that a mitigation discount exceeding 50% from a seven-and-a-half-year headline sentence was unjustifiably generous.

Justice John Edwards said pointing the shotgun at two gardaí performing their duties aggravated the offence, as did causing an armed garda to draw his firearm in public. He said the sentencing judge had failed expressly to find exceptional circumstances permitting a sentence below the presumptive five-year minimum. Even if she had made that finding, he said it was hard to see its basis.

The report identified Nolan’s guilty plea, age of 18 at the time of the firearm offence and personal circumstances as mitigation, but said there had been no co-operation or material assistance. Justice John Edwards said the court left the headline sentence and mitigation discount unchanged because time had passed and Nolan was seemingly doing well in prison.