Six years prison for man (38) in possession of improvised firearm

A man has been sentenced to six years in prison for the possession of an improvised firearm and a separate assault on a shop worker.

Andrew Smith (38) of Oranmore Road, Ballyfermot, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to the possession of an improvised firearm at that address in June 2021.

He also pleaded guilty during a trial to assault causing harm and production of an article at a shop on Ballybough Road, Co Dublin, on November 20, 2018.

He has 94 previous convictions, which include one for assault causing harm, for which he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, and violent disorder, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison.

Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Pauline Codd said she has regard for the injuries sustained by the injured party in the assault and described it as a “completely unnecessary attack”.

She described the aggravating factors as his previous convictions, some of which were very relevant, the racist language used, the use of a sweeping brush during the attack and the impact of the injuries on the victim.

Judge Codd said she would take his guilty plea and personal circumstance as mitigating factors and sentenced him to two years in prison.

The judge said possession of an improvised firearm is a more “serious offence”.  She noted it carries a minimum mandatory sentence of five years.

She highlighted that Smith was on bail at the time of the offence and his previous convictions as aggravating factors. She took into consideration that he had accepted responsibility, that he had been informed by gardai that his life was under threat and that there had been previous trouble at this address in the past.

Judge Codd said there were grounds to depart from the mandatory sentence of five years and sentenced him to four years in prison to run consecutively with the two-year prison. She backdated this sentence to when he went into custody.

Defence barrister Luigi Rea BL asked the judge to consider suspending a portion of the sentence, which she refused.

Garda Mairead Egan told Eoin Lawlor, BL, prosecuting, that during Smith’s trial for assault causing harm, he was shown CCTV footage during a break in the trial and afterwards entered a guilty plea.

Gda Egan said the injured party was a Chinese man who had worked in the shop for eight or nine years. On the day in question, Smith and a woman entered the shop. Smith was holding a plastic bag and a sweeping brush.

The shop worker saw Smith shoplifting and told him to put it back and that he was calling the gardai.

The court heard that Smith and the woman left the shop, and the shop worker went after them, telling them to return the item. Smith swung his arm twice and hit the shop worker on the body. The female then handed him the brush and said, “kill him”.

The shop worker ran toward the shop and was struck on the back of the head with the brush. The injured shop worker went to hospital and suffered two broken fingers.

He was off work for a number of months, and when he returned to work in the shop, he was unable to continue and returned to China. The court heard he did not wish to make a victim impact statement.

Smith was identified from CCTV and was arrested and interviewed.

Detective Garda Michael Noone told the court that gardai executed a search warrant on the house that Smith was living at on June 8, 2023. During this search, they found a white sock in a bedroom which contained three shotgun cartridges, one of which was spent, and the other two were live.

The court heard that an improvised firearm was found under couch cushions.  A Garda ballistic expert examined the firearm and said it was in “fair condition” and “test cartridges were successfully discharged”. The spent cartridge was also examined, and the expert confirmed that it had been shot from the seized shotgun.

Det Gda Noone agreed with Mr Rea that there was a lot of trouble connected to the house Smith was living in with his mother.

The garda agreed with counsel that members of the gardai had informed Smith that his life was under threat. He further agreed that Smith’s mother had been stabbed in the doorway of this house in 2017.

Mr Rea said his client has accepted responsibility for the improvised shotgun and has written a letter of apology for the injured shop worker.

Counsel said his client began dabbling in recreational drug use, which then turned into an addiction. He said Smith has a good work history.