A boatyard worker who was caught trying to climb out of the bathroom window of a “sophisticated” cannabis grow house has been jailed for six years.
Niall Smith (51) claimed to gardaí he had simply popped into the house at Killinarden Heights, Tallaght, for a “cup of tea” with a friend and didn’t notice the smell of drugs in the home, which had been converted upstairs to grow cannabis in all three bedrooms.
A total of €68,149 worth of cannabis in the form of plants and seeds was seized by gardaí after they prevented Smith from jumping out of the upstairs window in May 2023.
Smith told gardaí he had gone upstairs to use the bathroom while having tea with his friend – the co-accused in the case – and that he didn’t notice the smell of any drugs, which gardaí described in court as “overpowering”. He said he tried to jump out the window when gardaí arrived “due to panic”, the court heard.
READ MORE
Along with three bedrooms being used to grow plants, gardaí found gardening paraphernalia and other equipment. They found some €2,155 cash in Smith’s car and more cash when they searched his home, along with a drug ticklist.
The co-accused was the owner of the house and he had bypassed the electricity meter so the ESB would not be alerted to the high levels of electricity required to cultivate the cannabis, Judge Jonathan Dunphy was told. It was a “sophisticated system”, the court heard.
Smith’s accomplice was handed a five-year sentence with the final 12 months suspended after he entered an early guilty plea.
Smith, of Limekiln Road, Greenhills, pleaded guilty to one count of cultivating cannabis at the Killinarden address on May 3rd, 2023, on the first day of his trial last week. A more serious charge of possessing it for sale or supply under section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act was dropped by the prosecution.
Smith has five previous convictions, including one for cultivating cannabis in 2013 at a house in Co Wexford. He was given a seven-year suspended sentence for this offence, which expired in February 2022, one year before this offence occurred.
Sentencing him on Thursday , the judge said the scale and sophistication of the growing system were aggravating factors, as well as the value of the drugs found in the house.
He also noted the role Smith played in the operation. He said Smith was an experienced cultivator based on his previous conviction for cultivation and someone who was “clearly trusted” in his role.
The judge said there was “zero evidence” before the court that Smith was vulnerable or put under pressure by others.
He set a headline sentence of nine years, which he reduced to seven years, having considered the mitigation.
However, the judge said he would suspend the final 12 months of the sentence for two years to incentivise Smith’s rehabilitation and to facilitate his reintegration into society upon release from custody.
Defence counsel Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha noted that Smith’s co-accused was jailed for four years for a more serious section charge, although he conceded this man did not have a similar previous conviction as Smith does.
