A DUBLIN man who acted as a courier and was caught with a large quantity of illegal animal growth promoters was given a six-month sentence and fined £3,200 in Nenagh District Court yesterday.
Michael Dawney (38), of Mercer House, Mercer Street, Dublin, told gardai who arrested him at Horse and Jockey, Co Tipperary, on January 29th, 1992, that he was delivering paint to a man in Clonmel.
However, when the Nissan Patrol van he was driving was searched, a large quantity of illegal growth promoters, including clenbuterol, commonly known as "angel dust", was found in boxes in the back of the vehicle.
Assistant Garda Commissioner James McHugh said that, acting on information, he went to a licensed premises at Horse and Jockey while investigating the illegal animal drugs trade.
A colleague with him went into the public house and saw Dawney meet a man who was also under investigation. When the accused man left the bar at about 7. 15 p.m., he approached him.
When he asked Dawney what he was doing and if he would accompany him to Thurles Garda station to have the vehicle searched, the defendant said he would only go there if he was arrested.
The Garda witness said he then arrested the accused man under the Animal Remedies Regulations and escorted him to the Garda station, where he spoke to him when the van was searched.
In the station, he cautioned the defendant and questioned him about the contents of the boxes in the vehicle. Dawney would not tell him where he had got the drugs or to whom he was delivering them.
When he told him there were illegal animal drugs in the van, Dawney said he very much doubted that. He also refused to sign the notes which Assistant Commissioner McHugh, then a detective superintendent, had made of their conversation.
Inspector Thomas O'Loughlin gave evidence of seeing a man who was then under suspicion making contact with Dawney in the public house.
There were six boxes of animal growth promoters in the back of the van. He gave evidence of sending samples of these to the State Laboratory, where Dr William King carried out tests. He told the court that they contained growth promoters, including clenbuterol, and gave evidence of how the tests had been carried out.
Mr Barry White SC, for Dawney, sought a dismissal of the 12 summonses against him on the grounds that he should not have been questioned at Thurles Garda station when he had only been arrested so that the vehicle could be searched.
Counsel also submitted that if the arrest was legal, then his client should not have been denied access to a lawyer. He claimed the State had failed to prove that the defendant had possession of the drugs in a legal sense.
Judge Michael Reilly rejected the application and Mr White said he would be looking for a case stated on the issues involved.
Convicting Dawney on all 12 summonses, Judge Reilly said they were serious offences and there was a large amount of drugs involved.
He was told Dawney was married and was now in a second relationship with young children. He had previous convictions for larceny and malicious damage, but these dated back to 1986 and 1987.
Judge Reilly sentenced Dawney to six months imprisonment on two charges of possessing clenbuterol and one charge of selling it. He fined him a total of £3,200 on four charges of possessing clenbuterol and other animal growth promoters.
He ruled that the sentences should be concurrent and he also suspended Dawney from driving for six months.
He fixed bail in the event of an appeal at £500 for the defendant and an independent security of £2,500.
Earlier, a beef farmer, James Mounsey (65), of Norwood, Nenagh, was fined £650 when he pleaded guilty to moving an animal contrary to the Animal Remedies' Regulations between December 1st and 16th, 1993.