A man who admitted to selling a false passport that was later used by organised crime group leader Daniel Kinahan has been jailed for 15 months.
Seamus Walsh, from Mountainview Crescent, Dundalk in Co Louth, was paid €2,000 for the passport in 2011.
A previous sentencing hearing earlier this year heard that Mr Walsh admitted applying for the passport using his name but with a different picture.
It was later used by crime group leader Daniel Kinahan, who had use of the passport for up to six years before it was cancelled.
Seamus Walsh told gardaí he was approached by a man who he did not know in December 2011 about a passport application.
Walsh was addicted to heroin at the time and said he did not know who the passport was going to.
Judge Dara Hayes sentenced Walsh to two and-a-half years in prison, with the final 15 months suspended.
At the previous hearing, Detective Garda Feidhlim McKenna of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal investigation said the investigation began on foot of a complaint from the Passport Office.
It was noticed that the passport photo did not match the photo on the defendant's Public Services Card and instead matched another passport application for Daniel Joseph Kinahan.
The passport in Walsh’s name was revoked in October 2017.
They discovered that the supporting documentation, a bill, a driver's licence and bank account details were false and that the photograph that accompanied the application was that of Mr Kinahan, not Walsh.
Det Garda McKenna said Mr Kinahan is a senior figure in organised crime and it was common in these cases that vulnerable people with drug or alcohol addictions were approached for passports.
Walsh told gardaí that when the passport arrived at his house in Dundalk, he handed it over to the man whom he described as being a member of the Travelling community who had been "in and out of his house selling drugs" at the time.
Walsh said he did not know the man got the passport for and said he was "off his head on drugs" at the time.
'Panicked on the day'
Walsh failed to appear for sentencing before Dundalk District Court on 25 April and was arrested last Friday on foot of a bench warrant.
His defence counsel Ronan O'Carroll said that his client wanted to apologise to the court.
He said Walsh had "panicked on the day" and "couldn’t face the consequences".
Mr O’Carroll said his client had been surprised by the "great deal of attention" this case had attracted and that this had had an effect on him.
The court previously heard submissions that Walsh was a carer for his mother, but at the last sentencing date, Judge Hayes said that the defendant’s mother had been in a nursing home since last August.
Mr O’Carroll said that given his clients failure to appear and the revelations regarding the care of his mother, there was "no doubt" that his character had diminished in the eyes of the court.
Mr O’Carroll told the court that Walsh was a "gentleman" and that his remorse was reflected in the way he has dealt with this case, by making admissions.
He said that Walsh knew that "matters have caught up with him" and that the last four days, which have been spent in custody, have had a significant impact on him.
In sentencing, Judge Hayes said that the fact Walsh had sought to mislead the court regarding the care of his mother in this way did not say much for his bona fides or speak overly well to his professed remorse.
Judge Hayes said that this was a "serious offence by which a false passport was acquired for nefarious purposes".
He said that a passport acquired in this way can only be for criminal use.
Judge Hayes accepted that Walsh did not know who the passport was for, but that he "cannot but have known that the passport he acquired was for an illegitimate purpose".
He said this was done for personal profit and to assist criminality, but the judge accepted that Walsh was not aware of the type of criminality.
He took account of the accused’s guilty plea and his cooperation, and noted that rehabilitation steps he had taken as a person who had a severe drug addiction.
Judge Hayes said a custodial sentence was required given Walsh knew the passport was for some form of unlawful purpose.
He sentenced Seamus Walsh to two and-a-half years in prison, with the final 15 months suspended.
