‘Fed up’ Achill teen sold ecstasy to friends

‘Fed up’ Achill teen sold ecstasy to friends


An 19-year-old Achill man sold ecstasy tablets to his friends because he was ‘fed up’ with not earning money, Achill District Court heard last week.
Thomas Calvey of Bullsmouth Road, Dooniver, admitted to possession of 15 ecstasy tablets for sale and supply. Supt Joe McKenna told the court that acting on confidential information, gardaí had searched Mr Calvey’s home on April 20, 2014.
Fifteen ecstasy tablets were found in Mr Calvey’s wallet, and a digital weighing scales was also discovered. Mr Calvey admitted supplying the drug to 15 or 20 people for €10 each after buying 85 tablets for €450.
Mr Dermot Morahan, solicitor for the defendant, explained that his client started dealing the drugs at the end of January 2014 following an accident in November 2013 in which he was injured. He was off work, and when asked why Mr Calvey started dealing, Mr Morahan said that fed up with not earning, his client had taken the extremely bad decision to sell drugs.
Mr Morahan explained that he did not sell drugs to everyone. He sold to around five friends regularly, and had only sold to between 15 and 20 people. Mr Morahan described the operation as ‘amateurish’ and ‘in its infancy’.
When he said the situation had not spirralled out of control, Judge GrΡinne O’Neill replied that it ‘may already have’ and ‘God only knows what he has started’.
Mr Morahan said he was not trying to be dismissive of the seriousness of the situation and that his client will have to deal with the consequences.
Mr Calvey, the court heard, had left school following Transition Year to work in a local supermarket and was no longer taking drugs. Nor had he sold any drugs since he was arrested. Mr Morahan said he was working to try to better his situation and had no difficulty providing urinalysis to show that he was clean of drugs.
Judge O’Neill said she was concerned for Mr Calvey. If everyone in financial difficulty started dealing in drugs, she said, ‘where would we be?’. She agreed to adjourn sentencing until May 14 for the preparation of a Probation Report.