Judge calls for 600-hour community service orders as he slams 'inhumane' prison overcrowding

Tom Tuite

Circuit Court powers should be increased to allow 600-hour community service orders due to "inhumane" overcrowding in Irish prisons, a judge has said.

The remarks came during the sentencing of Sifoso Mpobole (39), of Alverno Drive, Willow Park, Athlone, Co Westmeath.

Mpobole had pleaded guilty at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court to money laundering involving €62,100 in crime proceeds.

He claimed he was forced to act as a courier and collect the cash to pay off a drug debt, while in the throes of cannabis addiction.

On Tuesday, Judge Keenan Johnson imposed 240 hours of community service in lieu of a three-year, six-month prison sentence.

He welcomed new legislation increasing the limit to 480 hours, which he said would have been more appropriate in this case.

However, Judge Johnson revealed he had lobbied for a 600-hour ceiling because current prison conditions, where three prisoners are sometimes held in a single cell with an open toilet, were "unconscionable and inhumane."

Garda Sean Barrett told the court that on March 4th, 2024, he stopped a suspicious 2007-registered Mercedes on the Dublin Road, Mullingar.

A search led to a bag containing bundles of cash in the back seat. The accused initially claimed the money was his; he later told gardaí he was acting under threat to cover a €5,000 cannabis debt.

He had driven to Dublin to collect the crime proceeds and was to hand the cash over to another person after an arrangement to meet in Mullingar.

However, they were intercepted before the exchange took place.

The investigating officer accepted that the father-of-three, who moved to Ireland from South Africa as a child, had been forthright, and the garda agreed with Delia Flynn SC, defending, that he believed Mpobole's account that he had been under duress.

When asked whether he had tried to stop communicating with those directing him, the court heard that Mpobole replied it was "not easy to ignore them" as he was receiving "lots of threats."

The court heard he is now drug-free and working in the building trade, though the incident cost him his relationship with his partner.

The Probation Service deemed him suitable for the non-custodial sanction. Mpobole has seven prior convictions dating back to 2010 for motoring and criminal damage offences, but Judge Johnson held they were not relevant to the money laundering case.