A former flight attendant has been given a suspended sentence after he was caught carrying €20,278 worth of ecstasy in a schoolbag in Dublin.
Dax Malone (22) of Alderwood, Stamullen, Co Meath, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drug for sale or supply on Upper Hatch Street on July 26th, 2010.
He had no previous convictions and Garda Bernard Maguire agreed he was unlikely to come before the courts again.
Judge Carmel Stewart imposed a sentence of three years suspended in full for three years on strict conditions after taking into account Malone's character and lack of previous convictions.
Garda Maguire told Sean Guerin, prosecuting, that he stopped three men on Hatch Street because he thought they were acting suspiciously. When he stopped to talk to them they appeared nervous and they were arrested for a drug search.
Malone was carrying the schoolbag and when it was searched at the Garda station gardaí discovered a large quantity of tablets.
Garda Maguire agreed with Erwan Mill-Arden SC, defending, that, while studying film production in Bray, Malone had met a man who had become his drug supplier. He accepted Malone later got into debt with this supplier, who told Malone he was being put under pressure from “someone higher up the chain” to pay it off. Malone then left Ireland to begin his cabin crew training in Frankfurt.
Garda Maguire accepted that even though Malone flew as far as Morocco in the course of his job, he trusted Malone “not to do a runner” and confirmed that Malone had voluntarily returned to Ireland to be charged.
Counsel said his client is now drug-free and asked the court to consider Malone’s level of co-operation with the gardaí when considering sentence.
Mr Mill-Arden said his client was introduced to cannabis at a young age in school and at the time of his arrest was abusing cannabis and amphetamines.
Counsel submitted that his client was “a nice young man who did a bad thing” and suggested that he deserved a chance.