Man jailed for drug and road offences
A Ballincollig man dealing heroin in Cork city was jailed for 10 months yesterday. Ken O’Mahony, 45, confessed to the drug supply charge at Cork District Court yesterday, where he also admitted multiple counts of driving with no insurance.
Judge Olann Kelleher banned him from driving for 15 years and imposed another 10-month sentence concurrent with the drugs sentence. Gardaí from Gurranabraher were on mobile patrol at North Mall, Cork, when they spotted O’Mahony, of no fixed address, acting in a suspicious manner. Garda Desmond Prendergast informed O’Mahony he was going to search him under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
The 13 individually wrapped deals of heroin found on O’Mahony had a total street value of €378. He admitted possessing the drugs for the purpose of selling them. The drugs crime dates back to June 28, 2017.
Garda Martin Lawton found O’Mahony with a claw hammer in his possession after midnight on May 9. He told the guard he was carrying the hammer for his own protection.
O’Mahony pleaded guilty to six counts of driving without insurance on dates from 2014 to last year. He had seven previous counts of driving with no insurance. Judge Olann Kelleher noted that the accused had now been stopped 13 times for driving without insurance. He imposed a total sentence of 10 months yesterday, to run concurrently with the drugs sentence.
Eddie Burke solicitor, impressed on Judge Kelleher the level of co-operation with gardaí by the defendant. Mr Burke said that a minor point that could be made in relation to no insurance charges was that there was never any accident or chase or anything like that.
He added that the defendant was diagnosed with a serious illness five years ago and, following this diagnosis, he became addicted to heroin. Judge Kelleher said he would take these issues into account, but said: “We all know the difficulties of heroin. He knew exactly what he was doing. With 13 bags of heroin, he was selling the drug in Cork city.”
When outlining the driving offences, Sergeant John Kelleher said that, in one of those instances, the accused was stopped driving and gave a false name and said he was in an emergency to get to hospital and that this was why he had driven without insurance.
