Ballyshannon man who avoided jail over €900k drugs haul risks arrest if he fails to attend court by end of week

A Ballyshannon man who avoided a prison sentence after being caught ‘red-handed’ transporting drugs worth an estimated €900,000 will be the subject of an arrest warrant if he fails to attend the Court of Appeal this Friday, March 26.

The warning was issued by Court President Mr Justice George Birmingham today (Monday) after Ciaran Lawn – who had been observed by gardai moving €840,000 worth of cannabis and €59,000 of cocaine from the back of a lorry – failed to attend an appeal hearing against his non-custodial term.

Moments earlier, the three-judge court had quashed the three-year wholly suspended sentence Lawn had received from Judge Mary O’Malley-Costello at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court in July last year.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had appealed the sentence on the grounds that it was unduly lenient.

Lawn (43), of Derrykillew, Ballyshannon, had pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance for sale of supply contrary to Section 15a of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 on December 15, 2019 at Drumgoolestown, near Ardee, Co Louth.

Today (Monday), Fiona Murphy SC, for the respondent, told the appellate court that she could not offer any explanation for her client’s absence and that he had not been in touch with his solicitor to say he could not attend the hearing.

Quashing Lawn’s original sentence, Mr Justice Birmingham, sitting with Mr Justice John Edwards and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, said the wholly suspended term had been unduly lenient and because Lawn was not in court to be re-sentenced a bench warrant was being issued for his arrest.

On hearing a request from Ms Murphy for the court to “stay its hand”, Mr Justice Birmingham stated Lawn must now attend a hearing at the end of the week to avoid arrest.

“If he is not here, without further debate or discussion, the warrant will be issued,” the judge said.

Earlier, Kevin Seagrave BL, for the DPP, told the court that wholly suspended sentences were only handed down when there were “special reasons of a substantial nature and wholly exceptional circumstances”.

“There was nothing in this case of an exceptional nature,” Mr Seagrave said, adding that as a starting point, a three-year custodial term for the offence Lawn had been convicted of could be considered “somewhat light”.

Lawn, counsel continued, had previous convictions for “significant” road traffic offences, had been caught “red-handed” with the drugs, and had failed to co-operate with gardaí after his arrest.

In response, Ms Murphy said her client’s previous convictions occurred almost 10 years before his arrest on drugs charges.

She said her client suffered from “serious” mental health issues and it seemed “there were significant issues at play” at the time of the offending, which the judge correctly considered prior to sentencing.

The defence barrister said that while there could be no dispute over the high value of the drugs seized by gardaí, she said her client was only a courier in the operation and was living on social welfare at the time of his address.

“He wasn’t someone who had made serious gains as a result,” Ms Murphy said.