Judge suspends sentence for Carrigart man who sold cocaine to fund house build

A Carrigart man caught with almost €4,000 worth of cocaine said he planned to sell the drugs to help fund the building of his house.

Joseph McHugh, 36, appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court where he pleaded guilty to having drugs for sale or supply.

The court was told that McHugh, a builder by trade, had been stopped by Gardai in his car, a silver Vauxhall Vectra, at Bonagee outside Letterkenny on October 9, 2019.

Garda Sergeant Maurice Doyle told prosecution barrister, Ms Fiona Crawford, BL, that a search of the car found two bags containing a white powder and a small amount of suspected cannabis.

At the time of his arrest, McHugh admitted that the cocaine was to be used for sale or supply but the cannabis was for his own personal use.

The substances were analysed and confirmed to be cocaine and cannabis with the cocaine having a value of approximately €3,480 and the cannabis a value of €12.

Barrister for the accused, Mr Peter Nolan, BL, said his client had been totally cooperative with Gardai when he was caught with the drugs.

Mr Nolan said that at the time, his client had been building a house and was in financial difficulty and that 'negative acquaintances' had told him there was good money to be made selling cocaine.

The barrister said it was a harebrained idea which went wrong.

However, since this incident in 2019, the accused had not come to Garda attention.

Instead, he signed himself into White Oaks Rehabilitation Centre to deal with his addiction issues and has been successful in dealing with those addictions.r

He now attends Alcoholics Anonymous up to three times a week and helps other people with addiction issues.

Mr Nolan said he had the benefit of two reports from the Probation Services for his client, one dated in 2023 and the other in 2025.

The first placed him as being at a moderate risk of reoffending but the latest report last year placed McHugh as now being of a low risk.

A number of positive reports were also read out in court on behalf of the accused man.

Mr Nolan said that his client was a very hard worker and had his own building company and now employed five people and had just started a new project.

He added that his client now has an enhanced understanding of his behaviour at the time of the incident.

The accused also has an 18-year-old daughter with a former partner and they were all on good terms while his current partner was in court with him and fully supported him also.

Mr Nolan stressed that his client has not come to Garda attention since the incident in 2019 and has taken every opportunity to rehabilitate himself.

He now wants to continue that upward trend and become a positive member of society, he added.

"He is extremely worried about these proceedings. He is hard working, pays his taxes and has taken his opportunity and I would suggest this is an aberration," said Mr Nolan.

Passing sentence, Judge John Aylmer remarked that this was a very serious offence and that cocaine was becoming "more and more of a scourge in our society."

He placed the incident in the mid-range and merited a sentence of five years in prison before mitigation.

However, the mitigating factors included the lack of previous convictions, the fact that he had fallen into addiction, the fact that he was fully cooperative and the fact that he had used his time so well to rehabilitate.

Judge Aylmer also noted the fact that the two probation reports had gone from placing McHugh from being a moderate risk of reoffending to being at a low risk of reoffending.

Giving the accused credit for his early plea and lack of previous convictions, he said he was reducing the sentence from one of five years to two years.

He added that fortunately, because of the lack of previous convictions and his excellent rehabilitation, this was one of those unique positions where he could suspend that two year sentence in its entirety.

He ordered McHugh to sign a bond in the sum of €100 to keep the peace for two years.