Gambler and ADHD sufferer jailed for distributing cocaine
A Belfast man from a "very respectable family", who told gardaí he was making €500 a week distributing cocaine after being made redundant, has been given nine years in consecutive sentences.
Liam Cullen (aged 27) with an address at Hayward Terrace, Aungier Place, Clonee, County Meath spent his €5,000 redundancy package on gambling, drink and drugs when made redundant in March 2005.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing cocaine valued at over €246,000 on three different dates between November 2005 and July 2006.
Judge Patricia Ryan declined to impose the presumptive minimum ten-year sentence for drugs valued at over €13,000, saying mitigating factors called for a reduced penalty.
She sentenced Cullen to three, four and two years for the various charges and ordered the latter two sentences be served consecutively with the final two years suspended on conditions.
Garda Stephen Boyce told prosecution counsel, Mr Garnet Orange BL, that five bags of cocaine worth over €6,000 were found on the kitchen counter top at Cullen’s house on November 5, 2005.
Garda Boyce from the Santry Garda Drug Unit said a large quantity of ‘marital’, which is used in the bulking and mixing of cocaine, and €600 cash were also found in the search.
Sergeant Martin Kennedy said that, while on bail, Cullen was arrested again on April 13, 2006, on Powerstown Road, Mulhuddart in possession of cocaine worth €30,000 in an ammunition box.
Sgt Kennedy said Cullen was arrested a third time in July 2006 in the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre shortly after he was seen carrying a blue plastic bag into Paddy Power’s Betting shop.
Cullen got into a car when he emerged from the shop and was followed and stopped by gardaí who recovered two packages of cocaine with a total value of some €210,000. He also had €45,900 in cash.
Judge Ryan was told by defence counsel, Mr Michael O’Higgins SC (with Ms Anne B Rowland BL) that Cullen’s father was a civil servant and his mother a librarian.
Mr O’Higgins said Cullen suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and had a serious gambling problem which he has sought treatment for.
