Three men were caught red-handed by gardaí as they were smuggling 3,750,000 cigarettes, Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court heard today.
The cigarettes were packed into empty computer cases and had been brought to an isolated shed on a farm near Inniskeen.
The cigarettes, worth nearly €1 million, were being repacked into boxes for onward transport.
Before the court were Barry McDonald, originally from the Bay Estate in Dundalk but now living in Forkhill in south Armagh, Ultan Tracy from St Alphonsus Terrace in Dundalk and John O'Hanlon, originally from Kilcurry in Dundalk but now living in Mountain Road, Dromintee, Newry.
All three had pleaded guilty to attempting to avoid paying excise duty on the cigarettes in July 2003.
Under the Finance Act, they had faced a maximum fine of €2.16 million each and five years’ imprisonment.
However, Judge Con Murphy sentenced McDonald and Tracy to two years, suspended on condition of them paying €10,000 each to the St Vincent de Paul charity.
O'Hanlon, who the State agreed was a ‘minnow’ in the case, was given a six-month suspended sentence on condition of the payment of €5,000 to the same charity.
