Suspended sentence for woman who held €24,000 of cocaine as a favour
A young Dublin woman who held over €24,000 of cocaine as a free favour to a third party has received a four year suspended sentence, writes
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Yasmin Redmond (20) was leading an “aimless” existence at the time and had agreed to hold the drugs in a shed for no money as a favour to another person.
Redmond, of Thornton Heights, St Michael’s Estate, Inchicore, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine worth €24, 251 at her home on April 17, 2017. She has no previous convictions.
Garda Nicola Gormon told Lisa Dempsey BL, prosecuting, that she and colleagues with confidential information arrived at the premises with a search warrant.
Gardaí forced entry as the home was empty at the time and were in the middle of the raid when Redmond entered.
She admitted there was something in the shed as officers uncovered a school bag containing the cocaine block behind an artificial Christmas tree at that location.
Redmond was arrested and told gardaí that she had been minding them for a week for someone else.
Garda Gormon agreed with Ronan Munro SC, defending, that his client co-operated with gardaí, had not come to adverse attention since and had steered clear of former peer groups.
Mr Munro submitted to Judge Martin Nolan that his client had been leading an aimless existence at the time but was now accessing counselling and attending Youthreach.
He asked the judge to depart from the mandatory minimum ten year sentence for drugs offences of this nature and consider imposing a suspended sentence. Counsel suggested this was an exceptional case.
Judge Nolan accepted that Redmond was very young, co-operated with gardaí and was at the lowest level of the drug dealing operation.
He said Redmond did not deserve to go into custody and suspended the sentence for four years.
