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Addict and gambler held €143,000 of drugs to pay off debt, court hears

A former drug addict and gambler who admitted holding €143,000 worth of drugs in order to pa...
Newstalk
Newstalk

19.40 2 Dec 2014


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Addict and gambler held €143,0...

Addict and gambler held €143,000 of drugs to pay off debt, court hears

Newstalk
Newstalk

19.40 2 Dec 2014


Share this article


A former drug addict and gambler who admitted holding €143,000 worth of drugs in order to pay off a drug debt has been sentenced to four a half years in prison.

Robert Cummins (35), a father of three, developed a €300 a week drug addiction to cocaine in 2009 and became involved with third parties whom he owed €1,200.

Cummins of Cushlawn Park, Tallaght pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of €143,000 worth of cocaine, amphetamines and PVP at his home on November 11, 2013.

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Sergeant Declan O’Sullivan told prosecuting counsel Caroline Cummings BL, Cummins’ house was searched and he had provided them with a key to a locked shed in the garden.

A blue plastic box containing two black refuge sacks was found. The sacks contained four vacuumed packs which had drugs in them and three smaller bags of drugs. A digital weighing scales and €4,900 was found in the kitchen.

Cummins admitted to gardai he knew drugs were in the box and that he had been holding the drugs for unscrupulous people for six to eight weeks. He said he feared for his and his family’s lives.

Defence counsel Kieran Kelly BL, said Cummins, who was a part-time truck driver “doesn’t have the trappings of wealth and his cocaine habit had let him to have interactions with people he normally wouldn’t have.”

“He has given up gambling and drugs now,’ said Mr Kelly.

Judge Martin Nolan said Cummins “seems to be hard working but reliant on drugs.”

“This is tragic for his family and to some degree to him. There was a significant amount of drugs involved and he is older so he should have known better. He committed a huge misjudgement,” he said.


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