Man ran from garda after he was caught with bag of cannabis

A 27-YEAR-OLD Sligo man has been jailed for 34 months with the final eight months suspended and the sentence backdated to October 2020.

Ryan Lait formerly of Teeling Gardens, Ballymote, and now with an address in Millbrook, Milltown, Co. Galway, pleaded guilty to the possession of cannabis for sale and supply, with a second charge of cannabis possession taken into consideration. The offence happened at Drumbane, Curry, on December 11, 2018.

Sligo Circuit Court heard how the defendant ran from a car stopped by a garda in the early hours of the morning, leaving over €7,000 of cannabis in a shopping bag.

Garda David Kelly told the court that on December 11, 2018, while on patrol in the Curry area at around 3.45am he saw a car coming towards him on a narrow country road.

The garda got suspicious as it was in the early hours of the morning and midweek and on a quiet country road.

He saw three males in the car, gave chase and the vehicle stopped in the townland of Drubaun, Curry.

All occupants appeared nervous, and the decision was then made to initiate a drugs search. A Centra shopping bag was observed in the back seat where Lait was sitting.

The garda recognised Lait and asked him his name.

The defendant told him his name was ‘Conor McLoughlin’ to which the Garda informed him he believed this was not right.

Garda Kelly looked into the shopping bag where he saw what he believed to be a large quantity of cannabis herb.

Lait then jumped from the vehicle and ran across the main road and made his escape.

The drugs had a street value of €7,688, the court heard.

Lait was arrested on February 18, 2020, in a house in Ballinode, Sligo, for an unrelated manner. He was later charged and granted bail but failed to appear in court last October and a bench warrant was issued.

State prosecutor Leo Mulrooney, instructed by State solicitor Elisa McHugh, told the court Lait has been in custody since that date.

Garda Kelly told the court thatt Lait had over 50 previous convictions, including 10 for drug possession, one of which was for sale and supply, possession of knives, theft and assault and road traffic offences.

Defence counsel Keith O’Grady, instructed by Gerard McGovern, put it to the garda in cross examination that if his client had not pleaded guilty it would not have been a straightforward prosecution.

Mr O’Grady said that gardaí accepted Lait was not a ‘significant player’ in the drugs scene and he was not a danger to anyone. Mr O’Grady suggested that if the case had gone to trial and the matter of Lait running away after giving a false name was put before a jury, the defence could have been that Lait had outstanding matters and a bench warrant was out for him at the time.

The court was told Lait had a difficult and tragic background and both his parents passed away by the time he was 10 years old. He had been in foster homes and later developed a difficulty with drugs.

Mr O’Grady asked that the greatest weight be put to Lait’s plea. Mr O’Grady said his advice to his client was it should have been contested, but Lait wanted to “wipe the slate clean”.

A report from the governor of Castlerea Prison, Anthony Shally, said that Lait was an enhanced prisoner who works as a cleaner. A letter from Lait, now aged 29, was handed into the judge.

“He’s asking for some light at the end of the tunnel,” said Mr O’Grady. “A more decent fella in the cold light of day you won’t meet, but he has had a difficult life,” he added.

Judge Francis Comerford accepted Lait had a tragic background losing one parent at the age of seven, and the other at the age of 10.

The judge said people coming before the court on drug offences such as this were often the “clearest evidence” of the harm drugs are doing.

Judge Comerford accepted the gardaí did not view Lait as a significant player but said this would mean he had an ongoing role in a less significant role.

He said: “I accept from the overall circumstances, although he was in possession of the Centra bag and pleaded.

“I accept that it’s likely he wasn’t the person who had primary control over them, and more people would have had primary control of them.”

The judge said it was a relatively small amount of drugs when compared to others.

But the problem for the defendant was the previous conviction for a similar offence and following serving a sentence for that offence he continued to engage in criminality having been involved in an assault in 2019 and drugs possession charges.

Judge Comerford commended Garda Kelly for approaching a car with three people on the night – doing that while on his own was, the judge said, “stepping up to his duty”.

He said that Lait had not co-operated with the legal process. “I hope matters work out for you, Mr Lait,” said Judge Comerford.

A destruction order was made for the cannabis.