Crack dealer asked to be jailed

A heroin addict and dealer asked a judge to decide his fate sooner rather than later in the hope he would be sent to prison so he could get help to detox.

Daryl Goldbey (22), 78 Fana Burca, Knocknacarra, was due to appear before Galway District Court in August but asked for his case to be dealt with last week instead.

Judge Marie Keane granted his wish.

He pleaded guilty to having heroin and crack cocaine in his possession and to having the drugs for sale or supply. He also pleaded guilty to being a passenger in a car which he knew was stolen.

Sergeant Aoife Curley said Garda PJ Noone from the Divisional Drugs Unit stopped a car in which Goldbey was a passenger on May 9 last year at Clybaun Road, Knocknacarra.

He searched him after observing him trying to conceal items in his trousers.

Packets containing heroin and crack cocaine were found on the ground near where Goldbey dropped them.

He admitted the drugs were his. The heroin had a street value of €1,170 and the crack cocaine €1,100.

Sgt Curley said that in a separate matter, Gardai stopped a stolen car in which Goldbey was a passenger on February 14 last. He admitted knowing the car had been stolen.

Sgt Curley said he had 14 previous convictions for possession of drugs, trespassing and criminal damage. Most had been committed when he was a juvenile.

Defence solicitor, Martina Moran, said there had been a break in Goldbey’s offending between 2016 and 2019 when he successfully overcame his addictions. Unfortunately, he started to reoffend in 2019 because his addictions got the better of him again, she said.

He had attended a residential treatment programme in the past but once he became addicted to heroin his offending “ramped up”, she said.

“His instruction to me is that he knows what the court will be doing and he doesn’t want it kicked back to August. He wants to get help sooner rather than later in prison for his addictions.

“The temptations on the outside are too great,” she added.

Judge Keane sentenced Goldbey to four months in prison for the heroin dealing charge and took the remaining drugs charges into account. She fined him €100 for being a passenger in a stolen car.