Man who had prison sentence set aside due to errors handed new jail term
A Dublin man whose 10-year prison sentence for possession of cocaine worth €350,000 was set aside by the Court of Appeal earlier this month, has been given a new five-and-a-half year jail term backdated to 2011.
Stephen Geraghty (aged 50), of Neilstwon Drive, Clondalkin, had pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis worth over €4,000,000 for sale or supply at Nutstown, Clonee on November 27, 2003 and possession of €350,000 worth of cocaine for sale or supply in Lucan on May 30, 2004.
Geraghty was sentenced to two years imprisonment for the 2003 offence and 10 years imprisonment for the 2004 offence to run consecutively by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on December 13, 2011.
However, Geraghty's ten-year prison sentence for the 2004 offence was set aside earlier this month because he was not “actually convicted of the first offence at the time he committed the second offence,” according to the Court of Appeal's judgment.
The court heard that Geraghty was not convicted of the first offence of November 2003 and was on bail when he committed the second offence of May 2004. He absconded from the jurisdiction in September 2004.
Having handed himself in to gardaí in 2009, he pleaded guilty to both and was convicted of both on the same date, February 2 2010.
Geraghty's barrister, Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, had asked the court to consider whether one could be said to have committed a second offence under the act in circumstances where he hasn't been convicted of one.
In its judgment, the Court of Appeal stated that where “a person has been convicted of a second or subsequent offence” under section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, then a minimum sentence of not less than 10 years must be imposed.
The object of this provision was to deter a further breach of the law after an earlier conviction, the judgment stated.
However, the court held that the minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment only applied where one had been convicted of an offence “prior” to committing a second offence under the act.
The Court of Appeal imposed a new seven year sentence with the final 18 months suspended on Geraghty today.
Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan, who sat with Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, said it was an appropriate sentence having regard to the seriousness of the crime and value of the drugs.
His new five-and-a-half year jail term, imposed consecutively, was backdated to April 16 2011, the date on which his quashed ten-year prison sentence commenced.
Mr O'Loughlin, who told the court previously that Geraghty is suffering from a terminal illness, had said he didn't think the issue had been dealt with before.
Mr O'Loughlin had said there were a lot of cases in recent years of people receiving convictions for “grow-house” cultivation offences and possession with intent to supply offences on the same date. “One wouldn't be included subsequent to the other,” Mr O'Loughlin said.
The Court of Appeal further allowed Geraghty's appeal against sentence on the ground that the incorrect sentencing regime was applied because the 2007 amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act could not be applied retrospectively.
However “even if the provisions of the 2007 act had governed the sentencing of these offences” committed in 2003 and 2004 the mandatory minumum did not apply “since he had not been actually convicted of a prior” offence at the time he committed the second offence, the judgment stated.
The Court mentioned in its judgment that the creation of retrospective criminal offences is expressly prohibited by the Constitution.
