‘Spiral of doom’: Athlone man jailed for drugs found in crashed car

A man involved in the crash of a car containing large quantities of illicit drugs, has been given a 20-month prison sentence to run consecutively to a sentence he is already serving for drugs offences.

Stephen Hurley (25), with an address before the court in Brawney Crescent, Athlone, but who the court heard had been jailed for eight years in November last, fled from the vehicle after crashing it on the Ballymulvey Road, Ballymahon, Co Longford, on August 26, 2023

He came forward to Longford Circuit Court on a signed guilty plea on one count of possession of cannabis for sale or supply, the value of which was €12,622 - just short of the €13,000 that would make it a more serious charge.

A nolle prosequi was entered on six other charges, meaning the state opted not to prosecute on counts of possession of MDMA, cocaine and cannabis, as well as counts of possession of MDMA and cocaine for sale or supply.

Giving evidence before Judge Kenneth Connolly, Garda Barry Gillespie outlined how, on August 26, 2023, while on duty in Ballymahon, he received reports of a single-vehicle road traffic collision on the Ballymulvey Road.

When he arrived at the scene, he encountered an elderly couple who advised him that three males and one female had exited the overturned vehicle and ran towards Newcastle Woods.

Garda Gillespie observed the vehicle, a VW Passat, which was on its roof with heavy impact damage after hitting an ESB pole. He called for assistance from other units to search for those involved in the collision as he had concerns for their welfare. However, nobody was found.

On inspection of the vehicle itself, Garda Gillespie noticed a strong smell of cannabis and discovered a large bag of the drug, as well as a smaller bag within the car. He further discovered a bag of pink tablets which later were confirmed to be MDMA, and a small amount of white powder which was confirmed to be cocaine.

The vehicle was towed to Nolan’s in Newtownforbes where Sergeant Mick Byrne did a further inspection and discovered more controlled drugs, namely a further quantity of MDMA. He also observed that the plates on the vehicle were false, with the real plates bearing a different registration number.

Within the vehicle was a receipt from a filling station in Ballymahon for a mobile phone top up. It was dated August 19, 2023.

Garda Gillespie proceeded to call to the filling station where he viewed CCTV footage which showed the accused driving a black VW Passat into the forecourts before going into the shop to purchase a bottle of Lucozade and a mobile phone top-up. The correct plates were on the vehicle at that time.

On September 11, 2023, Garda Gillespie became aware that Gardaí in Athlone had arrested Mr Hurley regarding another seizure of controlled drugs.

In November of last year, Mr Hurley was sentenced to eight years in prison by Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Court, the court heard. The value of those drugs exceeded €83,000.

Garda Gillespie told the court that, during the course of his investigation, he received reports from Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) regarding the drugs he had seized from the car.

The wrapping of the larger bag of cannabis had Mr Hurley’s fingerprints. The airbag on the driver’s side of the vehicle had blood stains matching the DNA profile of the accused, as did the front passenger airbag, the roof and one of the sun visors.

Prior to those FSI reports, when interviewed by Gardaí, Mr Hurley said he was not the driver of the car, but a statement from an occupant of the car put him as the driver. Shane Geraghty BL, prosecuting, told the court that it is the state’s case he was the driver of the vehicle.

Following the results of the FSI tests, he was further questioned and was “quite vague”, Garda Gillespie explained.

He said Mr Hurley had told him he didn’t know how his fingerprints got on the drugs but he was “thrown around the car” because “the car flipped four times” and “if the drugs were his, then his prints would be on the ecstasy (MDMA).”

Mr Hurley has 69 previous convictions, including three for drugs-related offences, 18 for road traffic offences, eight for theft or fraud and 20 for various minor public order offences.

The most significant of those convictions was for the €83,864 drugs-related offences that occurred a number of weeks after the incident before Judge Connolly.

Garda Gillespie told the court that Mr Hurley isn’t personally known to him but, while carrying out inquiries, he learned that the accused had started criminality at the age of 14 and has been “in and out of prison” since the age of 15.

In mitigation, John Hayden SC, accepted his client had been involved in crime since the age of 14 and said that, when he appeared before Judge Johnson last year, the court became aware that the accused had “a number of difficulties as a child between 14 and 18 years old”.

“There’s an element behind it where we now have a situation where he engaged himself in drug addiction - mainly cocaine. He wants to get help with that,” said Mr Hayden.

Judge Connolly, referencing a written judgement from Judge Johnson on November 21 of last year, noted that Mr Hurley is “a person who is easily led”, is “influenced very easily by other people” and is in a “position that more serious criminals have taken advantage of”.

Mr Hurley had a release date of September 11, 2029, which Mr Hayden said he was hoping would not be impacted by any further sentence imposed by Judge Connolly.

However, Judge Connolly said the case was “very troubling”, as Mr Hurley, at the age of 25, is “very young indeed”.

“He has amassed quite an astounding number of previous convictions - 69 in total from the age of 14 or 15 onwards,” he said.

“That is a very substantial number of previous, resulting in one of the worst records the court has seen, and that really is saying something. It is a real personal tragedy. He’s absolutely wasting his life in criminality and spending years in prison. He will have an awful lot of time to think about that over the coming years.”

Judge Connolly took the “scourge of drugs on society, families, the community and the person themselves” as an aggravating factor when turning to sentence.

“All in all, it’s just an absolute spiral of doom for anyone involved in the drugs trade or the taking of drugs. Somewhere along the road, they run out of road and have serious difficulties with the law,” he said.

He set a headline sentence of five years imprisonment but, after taking into account such “limited” mitigating factors as a plea of guilt, and the fact that he conducted himself appropriately in court, he reduced that to three years and four months, to be served consecutively to the eight-year sentence he is currently serving.

He then had to consider whether that total sentence was proportional, and reduced his sentence to 32 months.

“I’m utterly disinclined to suspend any of that sentence but I’m going to suspend the final 12 months specifically to have him under some probationary supervision,” he said, instructing that Mr Hurley enter into an own bond of €100 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a period of two years post-release.

He has also been ordered to remain abstinent from all controlled drugs, and to attend all services offered by the probation service, including all recommended counselling programmes and the employment office.

He concluded by making a destruction order for all drugs seized, as well as for the vehicle itself and anything in it.

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