A taxi-driver who stashed cannabis worth €2.75 million in a ditch behind his home has been jailed for six years by Judge Kevin Haugh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Donal Creamer, a senior official at the north Dublin GAA club, Fingallians, was offered €1,000 by a man he picked up in his taxi to hold on to a bag containing the drugs.
He accepted because of severe financial pressure and was arrested after gardaí seized the drugs on foot of confidential information.
Creamer (42), a married father of three, Lower Commons, Garristown, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of drugs with a market value of €13,000 or more for sale or supply on July 11th this year.
Judge Haugh said he was entitled to consider the mandatory 10-year minimum sentence, but he was satisfied that the mitigating factors he had heard allowed him to come down from that.
"He was in a very vulnerable position and succumbed to temptation, but it would have earned him a paltry sum considering the risk that was involved," Judge Haugh said.
Det Garda Eric Canny told Mr Paul Greene, prosecuting, that Creamer was living in a prefab in a field at the time when gardaí received a warrant to search his home. Creamer pointed out two places under a ditch out the back where the drugs were hidden.
Det Garda Canny said that in total there was 215kg with an estimated street value of €2.75 million. He had been in custody since the date of his arrest.
Mr Tom Kelleher, the local primary school principal and a Fingal county councillor, told Mr Niall Durnin SC, for Creamer, that he gave up all his spare time to Fingallians GAA club and trained young people three to four nights a week. He also took them away on weekend trips in his taxi.