Caroline Doherty, 46, of Cian Lea, Swords, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis for sale or supply at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.[1] Gardaí searched Doherty’s house on 2 October 2024 and found open boxes on the kitchen floor holding just over 4 kg of cannabis, which they valued at approximately €84,264.[1]
Doherty told gardaí the boxes had been dropped off by an Amazon delivery van, that she was holding them and was to put them out into a bin that night for someone to collect, and that she had done this a couple of times and was aware it was cannabis.[1] Doherty has nine previous convictions, all at the District Court, primarily for road traffic offences, and no previous convictions for drug offences.[1] An investigating garda agreed there was no evidence Doherty was selling the drugs, that she was not their owner, that she was not paid for storing them, and that she was vulnerable, an “ideal candidate for storing large amounts of drugs”.[2]
Judge Elma Sheahan said the early guilty plea and the garda’s acceptance that Doherty’s role was on the lower end of the scale allowed the court to depart from the presumptive mandatory minimum sentence of ten years.[2] She imposed a three-year sentence which she suspended in full on strict conditions, including that Doherty refrain from illegal substances and submit to random urine analysis, and placed her under probation supervision for 18 months.[2]
