A father-of-one who agreed to mind €39,000 worth of ecstasy tablets for €500 because he had a gambling debt has been jailed for two years.
Dominik Kaczmarek, 27, of Maplewood Green, Springfield, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to being in possession of 3,944 MDMA tablets at his home on October 8, 2018.
He has four previous convictions for minor road traffic offences.
Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Kaczmarek had a gambling problem which left him vulnerable and that he was holding the drugs for reward.
“I have no doubt that he was going to hand them onto third parties,” the judge said before he added that Kaczmarek “knew what he was at and took the chance”.
“He gambled and he was caught,” Judge Nolan said.
He accepted that Kaczmarek had a good work record, no relevant previous convictions and co-operated with the garda investigation but said “I cannot go as far as a totally suspended sentence”, before he jailed him for two years.
Garda Vincent Jaffray told Siobhán Ní Chúlacháin BL, prosecuting, that Kaczmarek's home was searched and the tablets were found in a drawer in a bedroom along with a weighing scales.
A further amount of tablets was found in a jacket pocket in the same room.
He told gardaí during the search that he had got the tablets the month previously and had been paid €500 to do it.
Kaczmarek later told gardaí that he had lost his job at the time and had trouble with gambling.
Gda Jaffray agreed with Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, that his client co-operated with the garda investigation and officers accepted that he was holding the drugs for someone else.
He further accepted that Kaczmarek has not come to garda attention since.
Mr Ó Lideadha said his client wanted to address his gambling addiction and asked the court to consider adjourning the case to allow him time to “fully turn his life around”.
He submitted that his client did not have serious previous convictions and was a vulnerable person due to his gambling problem.
Counsel said his client had always played an important role in his daughter's life and handed in a number of testimonials which spoke of his relationship with his child.
File photo
