A Romanian man who transported €235,000 of smuggled cigarettes is to carry out community service after a court heard he has no money to pay a fine.
Father-of-two Vladislav Secrii (35) agreed to transport over 600,000 cigarettes for another man for €200, which included €50 for diesel.
Secrii, of Iona, Old Connaught Avenue, Bray, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to delivery of 606,500 cigarettes without a tax stamp at Cois Cairn estate, Old Connaught Avenue, Bray, on June 26th, 2012. He has no previous convictions.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring adjourned the matter last May having heard evidence to see if Secrii could pay a fine. He faced a maximum fine of €126,970 or five years in jail.
She later heard the accused is self employed and has very little income. Judge Ring commented that in those circumstances it would take Secrii years to pay off any fine.
The judge said it makes more sense to impose a community service order and adjourned the matter again pending a Probation Service report on whether he he is suitable to work in the community.
Today Judge Ring noted the report concluded that Secrii is considered a suitable candidate for community service.
“The State was at a potential serious loss,” the judge remarked before she added that someone was going to make a significant profit from the enterprise.
She ordered that he carry out 220 hours community service in lieu of a two-year prison term.
Customs officer Kevin Murtagh told the court that colleagues discovered the cigarettes in three pallets marked “car accessories” on airfreight cargo from Greece.
The officials made a controlled delivery to a Dublin motor company, where a surveillance team saw Secrii and four men, who are not before the court, load the pallets onto a trailer.
Mr Murtagh told Anne Rowland, prosecuting, that the team followed the vehicle and trailer to Secrii’s home and then to a nearby housing estate.
Secrii later told gardaí he abandoned the jeep and trailer at the estate because he had become suspicious of cars parked in the area. He said he called the man who had given him the job and told him to collect his cargo.
Mr Murtagh said the loss in excise on the cigarettes would have been €206,594.
He agreed with Seoirse O Dunlaing, defending, that his client didn’t own the cigarettes and has not come to adverse garda attention since.
Mr O’Dunlaing submitted to the judge that Secrii had an “unblemished work history” and is employed in property maintenance.