Man sold heroin to undercover gardaí on two occasions

THE POSSIBILITY of an 18-month jail term hangs over drug dealer Terry Hurley (37) with an address at 6 Droim Catha in Enniscorthy after he was convicted of thefts and of selling heroin.

Prison sentences were suspended as Judge Gerard Haughton agreed to give the defendant a chance to prove that he has mended his ways in recent times.

Wexford District Court was told that Hurley twice sold heroin deals to undercover gardaí.

Guilty pleas were entered to all charges by defence solicitor Tim Cummings and summary of offences was provided to the court by Sergeant Victor Isdell.

During July of 2014, the accused assisted in stealing a horse box from a farm in Barntown by pushing it out of a field.

The box was valued at €3,500 and it was later recovered.

Hurley was one of two people who entered the premises of Celtic Linen in Wexford with fourteen 25 gallon drums which they proceeded to fill from a tank of diesel.

The thieves were interrupted by gardaí called and they abandoned the €300 worth of fuel they had taken at the scene in November of 2014.

In June of 2015, the same man was arrested as a result of a garda investigation called Operation Denver.

He sold €30 heroin deals to officers working under cover, once in The Faythe and then at Wygram.

A motoring offence dating back to 2016 was also considered by the court after Hurley was unable to show he had valid insurance when stopped in Bridgetown by a garda.

A list of previous convictions included public order matters and repeated counts of driving without insurance.

Addressing the heroin dealing, Mr Cummings stressed that his client was a ‘bit player’ who was low down in the chain of the drugs organisation.

He felt that Hurley had a very difficult background and a long history of mental illness, which was not helped by his drug taking.

However, the solicitor reported that the accused had shown a remarkable improvement in the past year.

He had linked up with the Shine organisation in Waterford to deal with the issues which plagued him from the time he was a teenager.

After reading a probation report, the judge accepted that Hurley might well have turned a corner.

Prison sentences adding up to18 months were suspended and the defendant was also banned from driving for six years.

He was put on probation for a year.