A man who admitted having heroin worth €8,104 to deal has been given a four year suspended jail sentence.
Patrick Myers (28 ) of Farran, Mullingar, but now living in Navan admitted having the drug on the C-Link Road, Mullingar on March 24 last year.
Mullingar Circuit Court heard how members of Mullingar’s Garda drug unit saw Myers in a car with his brother and when they stopped the car, Patrick Myers was agitated.
His shaking and nervousness led to gardaí searching the car, and under the cowling around the gear stick, they found two packs of heroin in a plastic bag.
Myers immediately admitted responsibility and said his brother had nothing to do with the haul.
He had earlier bought the heroin in Dodsboro in Dublin and paid €1,500 for it, some of which he had use to feed his two-bag a day habit, and the rest of which he would sell.
He was making a profit of around €1,500 on a stash of that size, Garda Bobby Feery told the court, and pointed out how Myers was known to use heroin, cocaine, cannabis, and ecstasy.
He said Myers had apologised when he was caught and of his 19 previous convictions, only one is for drug possession.
Ms Alexis Mina, BL said her client, who left school at 13, used to be heavily involved in boxing and soccer, but his life spiralled out of control when he got involved with taking drugs.
He hopes to stay away from the people he had been associating with and has been clean since he went into custody.
She said he had been earning money from drug sales and using it to pay drug debts he had built up over the years.
Judge Tony Hunt noted that Myers had a large quantity of very dangerous drugs concealed, and that itself was enough to show that he knew what he was at.
He congratulated Myers on the progress he has made in prison but said drugs now have to be a thing of the past.
He said Myers deserved a chance, but if he commits another offence in the next six years, he will find himself in prison.
