Woman handed over drugs to garda detectives, West Cork court is told

A woman whose house was searched on foot of a search warrant handed over cannabis and cocaine to detectives which she said was for her own personal use, a recent sitting of Clonakilty District Court has heard.

Sergeant Tom Mulcahy told a sitting of Clonakilty District Court that a search warrant was obtained to search the home of 42-year-old Michelle Lunnon of Beechwood, Shannonvale, Co Cork.

The search was carried out on January 4, 2024.

The court heard that Lunnon was present during the search and co-operated with gardaí, handing over small quantities of cannabis and cocaine.

The cannabis was valued at €10, and the cocaine was valued at €100.

The court was told that Lunnon had 31 previous convictions, 28 of which resulted from a prosecution for social welfare fraud in 2014 while the others were related to driving offences.

Lunnon did not have any previous convictions for drug offences.

Defence solicitor Conrad Murphy said that Lunnon’s life had changed significantly since the search. He said she was on multiple medications for pain relief, anxiety, and depression and also cared for a 15-year-old child with “significant needs”.

He said Lunnon was fully co-operative and had tried to deal with the matter as quickly as possible.

He added that at the time of the search she was “hanging around with the wrong people”, but the incident had given her “such a fright” that she had not touched drugs since.

Judge Joanne Carroll said that it was apparent from a medical report that Lunnon was dealing with “a multiplicity of quite significant issues.”

She applied the Probation Act on both counts of possession of illegal drugs.

• Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme