A man caught with more than €60,000 of illegal cigarettes and fake tracksuits has avoided jail after a court heard he was holding them for a criminal gang to whom he owed a large gambling debt.
Brendan Casey appeared at Donegal Circuit Court following a Garda raid at his home in Ballyshannon on May 8th, 2020.
Officers from the Garda Armed Support Unit forced in the back door of Casey’s home at Ernedale Heights home and found boxes of illegal clothing as well as illegal cigarettes and tobacco.
The 46-year-old was charged with a range of offences following the raid which uncovered the huge haul of counterfeit goods.
Among the charges were that he had in his possession a range of tracksuits including brands purporting to be Nike, Adidas and The North Face which breached the Trademark Act of 1996.
The court was also told that Casey had in his possession a total of 61,750 Excellence cigarettes and 33.8 kilogrammes of fine-cut tobacco for rolling which were in various packets.
The combined value of the tobacco and cigarettes was €61,645.45.
Details of the armed Garda raid on Casey’s home were given in court by Garda Sergeant Oliver Devaney.
He outlined how Casey had tried to prevent members of the Garda’s Armed Support Unit from entering his home at Ernedale Heights but was later found in a bathroom with a small amount of cannabis trying to flush it down the toilet.
Gardai found both tobacco and illegal cigarettes in several large boxes throughout the house and also found tracksuits of various brands including Nike, Adidas and The North Face.
Officers from the Revenue Commission were also present during the raid and Casey admitted the goods were counterfeit.
Barrister for the accused, Mr Peter Nolan, BL, clarified with Sergeant Devaney that all goods were recovered during the raid.
Outlining the case, Mr Nolan said the reality of the situation stemmed from the fact that Casey, who now has an address at The Mall, Ballyshannon, had a serious gambling addiction at the time and owed large amounts of money to a criminal gang.
He was allowed to place bets without cash up front and found himself in a position where he owed a considerable amount of money to the gang.
When he couldn’t pay off his debts, he was contracted by the gang to store the counterfeit cigarettes and tracksuits in his home.
Mr Nolan said his client said the goods had been at another address and had been transported to Casey’s address just two days before the raid took place.
Judge John Aylmer said it may be the case that Casey was under pressure from this criminal gang but he would like to hear from Gardai if they believed this to be true.
Garda Sergeant Devaney said he did know Casey in the past and that he had kept “bad company” and he did have some interactions north of the border.
He said he could not clarify to what extent he was involved with the gang but he said there was some element of accuracy about the claims.
The court was told that Casey did have previous convictions but the last was back in 2001 when he appeared at Falcarragh District Court for a range of motoring offences.
His barrister said Casey was an excellent sportsman and played both gaelic football and hurling and was also a fine runner but that all of these talents were overtaken by his addictions which included alcohol and gambling.
He suffered from poor health and had a heart attack back in 2017 and also has high blood pressure.
Mr Nolan said there had been a number of reports from the Probation Services between 2023 and 2025 and that there had been a “sea change” in his attitude, behaviour and responsibility.
He has attended Whiteoaks Treatment Centre and despite initially not being suitable for community service, the Probation Services have said that they except Casey can now do community service.
Mr Nolan added that the early plea had also saved the court a lot of time and money as witnesses from companies such as Nike would have had to travel from the UK to give evidence in the case.
He suggested that Casey was now a man who had “turned a corner” and said he would suggest that a custodial sentence would not be warranted in this case.
Passing sentence, Judge John Aylmer said because of the circumstances of the offending and that Casey was under pressure from a criminal gang to hold the counterfeit goods, he placed the offences at the lower end of the scale.
However, before mitigation, he said the offences merited sentences of 18 months in prison on each count.
He added that thankfully there was a considerable amount of such mitigation including the lack of recent convictions, his efforts to recover from addiction, his cooperation and his guilty plea.
Because of these he reduced the sentence to one of 12 months in prison.
However, because of the most recent Probation Report suggesting that Casey was suitable for community service, he said he now proposed to follow that suggestion and impose 240 hours community service on each charge to run concurrently.
ENDS