West Cork farmer pays hash by the hour

Temaz

Bloody cockneys!!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Londoner living in West Cork grew cannabis and paid workmen 2g of the drug per hour to build a house for him.

By Liam Heylin
John McFadden, of Trafraska, Baltimore, Co Cork, who runs a 50-acre cattle farm, operated a cannabis barter system to pay labourers.

However, drugs squad gardaí were alerted to the crop and obtained a warrant to search his property.

Garda Padraig Slater said they found €10,000 worth of cannabis herb in two tubs in his kitchen and in two brown paper bags upstairs.

McFadden, aged 57, was arrested on May 28, 2011, and, on his way to Bandon Garda Station, he told gardaí that he had another property at Clogher, Dunmanway, Co Cork.

Gardaí immediately got a further warrant to search that property, where they found one cannabis plant and a stash of cannabis herb worth over €23,000.

Defence barrister Donal O’Sullivan said it was for supply rather than sale, and that McFadden did not benefit financially from it.

McFadden told gardaí he was involved in barter whereby he would give workmen 2g of cannabis per hour’s work on a house he was building. He also said he was a heavy user of the drug himself, using about 1g a day.

Judge Patrick J Moran said that, in all of his years adjudicating over drugs cases, he had never come across something like this.

“It seems to be a novel way of dealing in drugs,” said the judge.

He read testimonials from neighbours and friends who described McFadden as decent, hardworking, honest, responsible, and a person of standing in the community.

“I accept you were of very considerable assistance to gardaí investigating this matter,” he said. “I suspect you would not have been charged with the Dunmanway offence but for the fact that you volunteered the information.

“This is a very serious offence. The legislature requires a judge by law to impose a sentence of not less than 10 years unless there are exceptional circumstances. I don’t believe this is a case requiring such a sentence.”

He imposed a five-year suspended sentence and told Mr O’Sullivan: “Tell your client I advise him to stay with his cattle and forget about cannabis.”

Boombastic

Where do I sign up?

keith16

He imposed a five-year suspended sentence and told Mr O’Sullivan: “Tell your client I advise him to stay with his cattle and forget about cannabis.”

Sums up the justice system in Ireland. "Ah shure, don't mind them aul 'drugs', shure ya have enough cattle to be looking after, HA?"

karma_

keith16 wrote: »

Sums up the justice system in Ireland. "Ah shure, don't mind them aul 'drugs', shure ya have enough cattle to be looking after, HA?"

Aye, because this is teh crime of the century!!

Fúck sake. Legalise the damn plant already, complete waste of the time and money of the judicial system.

srsly78

I don't see it mention hash anywhere, what's with the subject?

edit: No wait... I get it now... (terrible)

7 7 12

Works out around €28.50/hour tax free! More than I earn anyway

Super-Rush

I'd do it, but i'd have to like get up and like do stuff.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

The system should be more worried about all the labourers who were working and signing

castletownman

karma_ wrote: »

Aye, because this is teh crime of the century!!

Fúck sake. Legalise the damn plant already, complete waste of the time and money of the judicial system.

Am I the only one who read that in a Ming Flanagan accent?

ITS_A_BADGER

The gardai always add a few 0's to end of a haul and call it street value

WoollyRedHat

A minium of 10 ****ing years? Who the **** decides these kind of things? I'd like to murder them... get myself a nice 3 year suspended sentence hopefully.

Chuck Stone

What a waste of police time and tax payers money it is keeping a strain of plant illegal.

Tombi!

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

A minium of 10 ****ing years? Who the **** decides these kind of things? I'd like to murder them... get myself a nice 3 year suspended sentence hopefully.

I think (I could be very, very wrong though) that it's over 10,000 euro worth of any illegal drug.

And you only get your suspended sentence for murder if you're a drug/alcohol addicted/come from a broken home/are a general scumbag.

Fr_Dougal

Cannabis is a gateway drug...to the munchies...

WoollyRedHat

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

I think (I could be very, very wrong though) that it's over 10,000 euro worth of any illegal drug.

And you only get your suspended sentence for murder if you're a drug/alcohol addicted/come from a broken home/are a general scumbag.

Even without suspended, it's still ridicously small.

FearDark

Oh no the evil cannabis plant strikes again. Complete waste of time dragging this fellow through the courts. I often got paid in alcohol for labouring jobs good times. But cannabis is the devils drug and anyone growing it should be dragged through the streets for this heinous crime.

mikom

keith16 wrote: »

Sums up the justice system in Ireland. "Ah shure, don't mind them aul 'drugs', shure ya have enough cattle to be looking after, HA?"

Yeah...... throw the man working 50 acres in prison.
Now who should we bypass to let him in........... Robbie the rapist, Paddy the peado, or perhaps Slasher Mcgee.
Those prison cells are at a premium.

Gerard Barry with a previous conviction for manslaughter was on bail for rape when he raped and murdered the Swiss student Manuela in Galway.
I wonder was there a cannabis grower warming Barrys cell on the night he carried out the attack?

daRobot

Fair play to the judge. It'd be awful to have seen him jailed.

On another note, i'd love to have seen the builders.

BillyMitchel

Only in Ireland!

I'd say that was the most unmotivated bunch of staff ever!

MadsL

mikom wrote: »

Yeah...... throw the man working 50 acres in prison.
Now who should we bypass to let him in........... Robbie the rapist, Paddy the peado, or perhaps Slasher Mcgee.

Urrmmm...Welease Woger??

mikom

MadsL wrote: »

Urrmmm...Welease Woger??

Leave him where he is......... He's a very naughty boy.

PS. Nobody used the "Hash in hand" pun yet?

MadsL

mikom wrote: »

PS. Nobody used the "Hash in hand" pun yet?

Just you.

Roger_007

daRobot wrote: »

Fair play to the judge. It'd be awful to have seen him jailed.

On another note, i'd love to have seen the builders.

On yet another note, I'd love to have seen the building!

Boombastic

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Only in Ireland!

I'd say that was the most unmotivated bunch of staff ever!

I'd say the opposite

FearDark wrote: »

Oh no the evil cannabis plant strikes again. Complete waste of time dragging this fellow through the courts. I often got paid in alcohol for labouring jobs good times. But cannabis is the devils drug and anyone growing it should be dragged through the streets for this heinous crime.

It's good PR for the Garda to be seen to be carrying out big drug busts.

ceegee

Suspended sentence is a good call by the judge imo, your man doesnt seem to be any danger to society.

One thing I found strange is the talk of him only supplying it and not for monetary reasons. He was getting his house built off the back of supplying it ffs

mikom

Roger_007 wrote: »

On yet another note, I'd love to have seen the building!

Image here.

Tazio

So he paid them "hash in hand".... Crazy stuff....

Roger_007

If cannibis is to become a recognised currency, what will the basic unit of currency be: a Joint.

mikom

MadsL wrote: »

Just you.

Nope.
See post 27.
Never underestimate Cannabis.

starlings

I had trouble converting from imperial to metric there. It's been a while.

TheNog

Boombastic wrote: »

It's good PR for the Garda to be seen to be carrying out big drug busts.

Gardai are only doing their job. AGS are not involved in creating the legislation.

Eileen Down

Cannabis is a gateway drug...to carpentry..

OldIrishWulf

The trades men working on the house were not working for cash . Social welfare might state they were not available for work . What work . This government seem to think I should retrain for a job in cloud computing , whatever that is .

At this stage I could say I used to be a carpenter . The only time I ever get my head into gear is and get the drive to go out and walk up to building sites and talk the talk ,is when I find buts of joints young lads throw away and dry the crumbs and re-roll .

Its hard for someone who's idea of work is sitting at a desk to understand. I would work for free if I got to use my tools to build something .

7 7 12

They must have been working "Hash in Hand"

Dwork

7 7 12 wrote: »

They must have been working "Hash in Hand"

They were the best stoned-masons in the area though, sadly, they couldn't whip up the enthusiasm to actually build anything so they just sat around discussing how great the house would be when it was finished and how wild the scenery was. After a week they all got paranoid that he was only giving them 1.5g per hour.

Boombastic

TheNog wrote: »

Gardai are only doing their job. AGS are not involved in creating the legislation.

Chill the kacks, I never mentioned legislation

Chuck Stone

TheNog wrote: »

Gardai are only doing their job. AGS are not involved in creating the legislation.

That's what the camp guards said when they were gassing millions of people. :rolleyes:
trollface.

7 7 12

Chuck Stone wrote: »

That's what the camp guards said when they were gassing millions of people. :rolleyes:
[SIZE="1"][COLOR="White"]trollface.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

Yay Godwins law

Chuck Stone

7 7 12 wrote: »

Yay Godwins law

That isnay even a real law.

Capt'n Midnight

ceegee wrote: »

Suspended sentence is a good call by the judge

The legislature requires a judge by law to impose a sentence of not less than 10 years unless there are exceptional circumstances.

What % of people eligible have got the full 10 years ? And why so many exceptional circumstances ?

If the judges feel the law is wrong then they should get the politicians to change it rather than subvert the law by not implementing it. Unenforced laws mean people respect laws less.

Fr_Dougal

Tazio wrote: »

So he paid them "hash in hand".... Crazy stuff....

Ah they were decent skins.

Snake Pliisken

He was actually taking a loss when you budget in the biscuit-related expenses.