Court of Appeal sets aside 12-year drug sentence

The Court of Appeal has set aside a man’s 12-year sentence for possession of drugs worth more than €4 million in a case which raised an “important question” regarding construction of the Misuse of Drugs Act, as amended.

Stephen Geraghty (50), Neilstown Drive, Clondalkin, had pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis worth over €4 million for sale or supply at Nutstown, Clonee, on November 27th, 2003, and possession of €350,000 worth of cocaine for sale or supply the following year.

Geraghty was sentenced to 12 years in prison by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on December 13th, 2011.

However, the DPP has accepted there were errors in Geraghty’s sentence and the Court of Appeal was required to set aside his sentence.

The court had reserved judgment on Geraghty’s appeal last month because the case raised what Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan described as an “important question of construction” regarding the Act.

Geraghty’s barrister, Ciaran O’Loughlin, had asked the court to consider whether one can commit or be convicted of a second offence under the Act when one hasn’t been convicted of a first offence under the Act.

If a person is convicted of a second offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act as amended in 2007, then a sentencing judge is obliged to impose a mandatory minimum sentence having regard to exceptional and specific circumstances.

Geraghty was not convicted of the first offence of November 2003 and was on bail when he committed the second offence of May 2004, the court heard. He absented himself from the jurisdiction in September 2004.

Having handed himself in to gardaí­ in 2009, he was arraigned on both charges on February 2nd, 2010.

He pleaded guilty to both and received his conviction for both on the date of his arraignment.

The DPP accepted there had to be a prior conviction for a mandatory minimum sentence to be considered for a second or subsequent offence under the act.

Counsel for the DPP, Roisin Lacey, said the DPP also accepted the sentencing regime which should have applied to Geraghty was the regime which applied in the years 2003 and 2004.

Ms Lacey said the Director accepted that the 2007 amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act could not have a retrospective affect on sentencing. She added the Director only took that view with regards to the particular piece of legislation in question.

Ms Lacey said the two errors did not render Geraghty’s sentence as wrong in all the circumstances and whilst there may be errors in the sentence it was not unfair on him.

She said the background to the sentence was the commission of two very serious offences, the very significant valuation of the drugs and the very serious aggravating factor of committing an offence while on bail for an earlier offence.

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan, who sat alongside Mr Justice Gerard Hogan and Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan, said the court was satisfied by reasons of errors in law that there was an error in principle in the sentence imposed on Geraghty and in the circumstances the court was required to aside and vacate the sentence imposed.

The court will give its full reasons later for that decision in a reserved judgment at a later dateand must impose a new sentence on Geraghty.

Geraghty’s new sentence will be imposed on December 15th. He was not present in court for legal argument.

The court heard that he was suffering from a terminal illness.