Student who claimed €6,000 came from barbering avoids jail over drug offences in Donegal

A 25-year-old man who claimed he amassed more than €6,000 from part-time barbering has been ordered to do 240 hours community service and also received a suspended jail sentence.

Student Victor Adejuyibe admitted drug-related offences when he appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court.

He also tendered a guilty plea in respect of having €6,000 in cash which was the proceeds of criminal conduct.

Adejuyibe, with an address at Meadowbank, Long Lane, Letterkenny and also with an address at Chestnut Lawn, Johnston Road, Navan, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to a total of four charges.

He pleaded guilty to engaging in the possession of proceeds of criminal conduct on August 16, 2022 at Meadowbank, Long Lane, Letterkenny namely an amount of €6,020 in cash, while knowing that or believing that or being reckless as to whether or not the money was the proceeds of criminal conduct.

The accused man also pleaded guilty to three charges of being in possession of a controlled drug, cocaine, for the purpose of unlawfully selling or otherwise supplying it to another, contrary to section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977.

These charges relate to offences on February 2, 2022 at Lower Main Street, Letterkenny, April 1, 2022 at Oliver Plunkett Road, Letterkenny, and August 16, 2022 at Meadowbank, Long Lane, Letterkenny.

Detective Garda Declan O'Keefe outlined the background to the case against the accused which were part of a probe by the National Drugs Unit using controlled buys of drugs.

He outlined how on February 2, 2022, undercover Gardai made contact with Adejuyibe by Snapchat and met him at Lower Main Street in Letterkenny where he sold the undercover officer cocaine to the value of €100.

On April 1, officers again made contact with the accused at Oliver Plunkett Road in Letterkenny, but he ran off on foot and was detained and searched. Five deal bags of cocaine worth €350 were found on him.

Detective Garda O'Keefe also told how Gardai obtained a warrant to search a house at Meadowbank Park in Letterkenny.

On August 16, 2022, Gardai and a drug dog named Buster entered the house and found drugs and a sum of cash in a bedroom.

The total cash recovered was €6,020 while cocaine to the value of €1,345.74 was also found.

Barrister for the accused, Mr Damien Crawford, BL, told the court his client was a student and does not have any previous convictions.

Mr Crawford outlined how his client had been studying at ATU but had developed an addiction to cocaine.

He said his client admitted selling some cocaine but said the €6,020 in his bedroom was from barbering and that a number of items including a clippers for cutting hair had been found in his bedroom.

Mr Crawford said his client denied the cash was from proceeds of crime.

He added that the accused man's family had never been in trouble and that they were deeply ashamed of what had happened to their son.

Since the incident, Adejuyibe had dropped out of college in Letterkenny and was back living with his family in Navan.

He had returned to college in Rathmines, Dublin and had completed two years of a course in cloud computing.

Mr Crawford said the Probation Services had assessed the accused man of being as a low risk of reoffending and that his family were "genuinely frightened, shocked and ashamed" of what he had done adding that his family had never fallen foul of the law.

He pleaded with Judge John Aylmer to exercise as much leniency in the case as he could.

Passing sentence, Judge Aylmer said he accepted the accused had a cocaine addiction and that he was engaged in selling the drug at a relatively low level but enough to leave him with €6,020 at his home.

He said he was prepared to describe it as dealing at a low level and placed the offending at the lower level of such offences but one which merited a sentence of three years in prison before mitigation.

In mitigation, he said the accused had no previous convictions, had entered an early plea and had not come to Garda attention since the incident in 2022.

He noted he had gone back to college and said it seems to be the case that Adejuyibe is still a young man with a lot of potential and a lot to offer society.

Adejuyibe has been assessed as being of a low risk of reoffending, he has withdrawn from all criminal activity and it appeared he has learned his lesson, added Judge Aylmer.

For these reasons he said he was prepared to reduce the sentence to one of two years in prison on all charges.

However, because of the lack of previous convictions and a positive probation report, he suspended the sentence in its entirety for two years if Adejuyibe keeps the peace for two years.

On the charge of engaging in the possession of proceeds of criminal conduct, Judge Aylmer sentenced him to 240 community service to be completed within 12 months.