Man spared jail after MDMA found during eviction

Natasha Reid

Gardaí found more than €15,000 worth of MDMA in the wardrobe of an evicted Dublin City Council tenant, after a tip-off from the housing officer, a court has heard.

Glen McLoughlin was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, charged with possession of the drug for sale or supply at his old address at Scribblestown Rise in Finglas on November 19th, 2024.

McLoughlin (23), with a current address at Kilkiernan Road in Dublin 7, pleaded guilty to the charge and was given a suspended sentence by Judge Orla Crowe.

The court heard that a housing officer had contacted local gardaí earlier that day to say a number of suspicious items had been located during a planned eviction there and that they may wish to attend the scene.

Garda Sharon Clarke told the court that when she opened the wardrobe in McLoughlin’s room, she found controlled drugs and paraphernalia. This included €15,078 worth of MDMA and two small weighing scales.

McLoughlin, who has no previous convictions, told gardai that he did not own the MDMA, but was holding it and supplying it to others to bring down his own drug debt. He said that he didn’t deal with money.

Garda radar

Under cross-examination by Oisín Clarke BL, defending, Gda Clarke agreed that McLoughlin hadn’t been on the garda radar at the time. This had been a wake-up call for him and she agreed that he seemed to have turned his life around since.

“He was compliant from day one,” she said.

He had told gardaí that he had been using ‘party drugs’ on a regular basis and had managed to get himself into debt.

Clarke handed the court a letter from his client's fiancé, with whom he now has a child, a letter from his father and one from his employer. He also handed in documentation to show that McLoughlin had tested negative for drugs twice since his arrest.

Welding course

Counsel explained that, as well as working, his client was doing a welding course two evenings a week.

He said that his client liked hiking, fishing and golf and suggested he was “a man the court can take a chance on”.

Judge Crowe said that this offending hurt everybody in society, because society pays the price for all the havoc, “as much as he has played havoc with his own future”.

“I’m going to give him a chance and put him under the terms of a suspended sentence,” she said.

She imposed an 18-month sentence, but suspended it fully for three years.

“He is a young man, who found himself in a situation where he started to make some very bad decisions,” she added. “This sentence will be hanging over him.”