Gardai did not have authorisation to use a recording device as part of a drugs sting, the Court of Criminal Appeal has heard.
The claims are being made by lawyers for former CIE bus driver, Sunny Idah, who is appealing against his convictions for soliciting two undercover gardai to import cocaine from Brazil in September 2010.
The 37-year-old with addresses in London and at Lipton Court, Temple Bar in Dublin received a 15 year sentence with two years suspended at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last year.
The jury at his trial heard the two undercover officers posed as Polish men who were to be paid €5,000 to travel to Rio de Janeiro and swallow a kilo of cocaine pellets to bring back to Ireland.
It was the prosecution’s case that Sunny Idah went by the name Teamor and was part of an international drugs operation.
Secretly-recorded conversations of his meetings with undercover operatives were used as evidence against him.
But on appeal Sunny Idah's lawyers have claimed the use of the recordings was a breach of their client’s right to privacy.
They have argued that under the 2009 Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act, gardai were obliged to obtain authorisation to use the concealed recording device as part of their investigation.
The three judge court has been told that authorisation was sought from the District Court but only in relation to the use of audio visual equipment at a hotel room from September 14 to September 18.
Sunny Idah is also challenging evidence from a Swiss undercover agent who tipped off gardai about Teamor, the alias alleged to have been used by Sunny Idah.
The court has heard the operative, in a move that surprised and disappointed gardai, decided against coming to Ireland to testify at the trial before a judge and jury.
Instead, under the 2008 Criminal Justice Mutual Assistance Act, the agent chose to give evidence at a pre-trial hearing in Geneva from behind a screen with his voice digitally modified.
Padraig Dwyer SC told the court that the agent had a senior police officer on hand to advice him on questions that could be seen to relate to 'police tactics'.
