FINES totalling £104,000 were imposed on seven defendants including a meat plant owner, at Navan District Court yesterday on 104 summonses relating to the possession and use of illegal growth promoters and equipment. The defendants faced over 200 summonses but the court accepted pleas.
The defendants all pleaded guilty at a special sitting of the court before Judge John P. Brophy, who said at the end of the lengthy sitting that had the defendants not pleaded guilty and been convicted, he would have had to impose prison sentences.
Padraig Eugene O'Connell, Tullymeadon, Drumree, Co Meath, was also given a six month suspended sentence after admitting possessing banned drugs capable of treating 8,431 animals worth an estimated £84,000. He was also fined £14,000.
These were the first major cases to be dealt with since the Supreme Court challenge to the new strict regulations by one of the defendants, Frank Mallon, of Balrath House, Co Meath. Mallon, described as the owner of Liffey Meats, Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, was fined £25,000 on 25 charges relating to possession of hormones, failing to comply with an order banning the movement of animals, possessing hormone cartridges and equipment, administering prohibited substances to cattle and failing to provide information.
Another defendant, Denis Feighery, of Castleknock Lodge, Castleknock, Dublin, was fined £39,000 the largest fine imposed. He pleaded guilty to 39 charges: possession of hormone cocktails, including clenbuterol ("angel dust") at his farm, hormone implant equipment at his home and possession of animals treated with illegal substances.
A fine of £11,000 was imposed on John Kearney, of Allenstown, Kells, Co Meath, who pleaded guilty of possessing clenbuterol hormone implant guns and cartridges, administering controlled drugs to animals and possessing a treated animal in November 1994. He had faced 54 charges but pleaded guilt to 11 of them..
James O'Connell, of Ballycoolen, Co Dublin, was fined £8,000 for possessing hormones and antibiotics in Kilbride, Co Meath. He had faced 21 charges and pleaded guilty to eight of them.
Michael Keogan, of Ticroghan, Enfield, Co Meath, who pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of angel dust and hormones, was fined £3,000. An 80 year old man, Bernard Kearney, Gibbstown, Navan, was fined £4,000 when he pleaded guilty to possessing angel dust and implant equipment in November, 1991.
Dealing with the Mallon plea, Mr Declan Holmes, a Department of Agriculture inspector, said he went to the accused man's premises in Kells in April, 1993, where hormone cocktails of two prohibited substances were found. Mallon had been served with a notice prohibiting the movement of animals off the farm. The notice also required the handing over of ID cards for the animals.
Mr Holmes said he went to look for seven animals and "Mr Mallon indicated to me that they had been slaughtered".
The search team found implant equipment and illegal growth promoting drugs. He said Mallon a[so failed to give information one the source of the substances. Mr Holmes said that Mallon, in his 59s, farmed a 500 acre farm out side Kells and on the day of the search there were 621 steers of the farm. Mallon, he said, was also the owner of Liffey Meats in Ballyjamesduff, which is an EU approved export slaughter plant. Mallon employed a substantial number of people and exported meat to the Continent, North Africa and England. He said Mallon was shocked when the team made the discovery.
The court was told that Denis Feighery lived in Dublin but farmed at Ellickstown, Co Meath. In Februray, 1994, his home and farm office had been raided. Department veterinary surgeon, Mr Brian Flaherty, said he had met a jeep being driven off the Ellickstown farm and was told the defendant had driven off at speed when a search of the vehicle was requested.
The team had to force entry to a farm office where they found a variety of illegal drugs, including "angel dust". The team also examined the 1,000 animals being fattened there and got a warrant to search the defendant's home in Castleknock later that evening.
Mr Flaherty said when they went to Feighery's home the television and radio were switched on but no one was at home. They forced entry and conducted an extensive search. He said they found implanting guns in a wardrobe in what he would term the main bedroom.
He said they could not contact the defendant, who was arrested some time later by the Garda and brought to Navan where, he said: "Mr Feighery gave no meaningful statement." Twenty of the animals tested were found to be positive.
Imposing a £39,000 fine, Judge Brophy said Feighery was "not a small man" and his guilty plea had saved him from prison.
In the only case where a prison sentence was imposed, on Padraig Eugene O'Connell, the court heard that 8,431 hormone doses were seized at his home in March, 1992.
Mr Holmes said that drugs seized were valued at £84,000 and O'Connell had accepted responsibility for them. He said O'Connell was a major player in the distribution network a middle man between the importers and the users.
He added that O'Connell's statement meant that a more senior person involved will appear before the courts. Imposing the six month suspended sentence, Judge Brophy said of O'Connell, married with two children, if there were no middlemen the drugs problem would not exist.
At the opening of the hearings, the judge referred to the scandal which had taken place in the beef industry and said this, combined with the Beef Tribunal and BSE, had made Ireland the laughing stock of Europe and the world. Those people had made money by using drugs. No one knew what the effect of using those drugs in meat will have in humans in 10 or 15 years' time.