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On-bail criminal caught moving cash for crime gang has jail term increased

Jordan Keogh was re-sentenced to seven years in jail with the final 12 months suspended

Yesterday at 16:57

A Dublin criminal who was on bail when he continued to commit serious offences – repeatedly moving cash as well as a handgun for an organised gang – has had his six-year jail term increased by 50 per cent after a successful appeal by the State.

The Court of Appeal noted that, due to the totality principle and rehabilitation considerations, Jordan Keogh’s effective jail term for being caught with a semi-automatic pistol and two magazines of ammunition was just six months, which it found was a “substantial departure from the norm”.

Ms Justice Kennedy noted that the respondent had a drug-debt of €5K “that had grown exponentially to €180K”

Last February, Keogh (27) of Chaplin Terrace, Neilstown Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, was sentenced by Judge Elma Sheahan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a total of six years’ imprisonment on multiple charges that included the possession of crime cash totalling €172,950, as well as the possession of a semi-automatic pistol, ammunition and of drugs for sale and supply.

Keogh pleaded guilty to the charges.

Keogh was sentenced to 3.5 years on two money laundering offences each to run concurrently, to two years for possessing cannabis for sale or supply running consecutively to the money laundering charges and to a further 1.5 years with one year suspended for possession of a weapon and ammunition, which was also to run consecutively.

In total, Keogh was sentenced to seven years in jail with the final 12 months suspended in the interest of his rehabilitation.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, returning the judgement of the Court of Appeal, said that on February 20, 2020, gardaí parked behind a Skoda Fabia and observed Keogh running from the car with a black refuse bag, which he then threw under a nearby jeep.

On being asked about the contents of the bag, Keogh replied: “What bag?”

Gardaí retrieved the bag and found 886 grammes of cannabis worth approximately €17,700.

In his interview, Keogh told gardaí he ran from the Fabia because he had €500 on him and was concerned that gardaí might try to seize it.

Keogh initially denied throwing the drugs under the jeep but pleaded guilty to doing so on his first appearance before the court.

The following November, gardaí, who were in receipt of information, stopped a vehicle on the M4 in Naas, Co Kildare, and found €123K, predominantly in bundles of €10K, in the area of the passenger seat.

Gardaí also found three mobile phones, one being an encrypted device. In his interview, Keogh told gardaí he was paying off a debt of €5,000 after he had received cannabis for the purpose of selling it but swapped it for cocaine which he consumed.

In April 2021, while on bail, Keogh was under surveillance and was again stopped after travelling to the Newcastle area of Dublin from Clondalkin.

Gardaí located a compartment in the rear of the vehicle and found a .45 ACP calibre Les Baer custom 1911 semi-automatic pistol and two magazines of .45 ACP ammunition.

Keogh told gardaí that he had collected the gun and the ammunition for the persons to whom he was in debt.

In her judgement, Ms Justice Kennedy noted that Keogh told gardaí that the people to whom he owed money could “kill or petrol bomb” him if he did not do what was asked of him.

The following September, a vehicle was stopped at the N4 junction in Dublin and a Garda search uncovered €49,950 in cash concealed within the engine area in front of the car battery.

Keogh was the passenger in the vehicle.

Gardaí were in position to see that Keogh was rapidly typing on his phone and saw ‘sim card locked’ on Keogh’s phone.

Keogh again told gardaí that he had been forced to conduct this activity because he had been previously caught with drugs, cash and a gun, as well as being under a debt.

Ms Justice Kennedy noted that Keogh had 51 previous convictions for road traffic offences with another single offence of failing to appear in court.

Ms Justice Kennedy said that the sentencing judge took into account aggravating factors such as the seriousness of the offending, some of which Keogh carried out while on bail.

However, the State submitted that the trial judge erred “in law and in fact” by imposing an unduly lenient sentence in “failing to have appropriate regard to the fact that offences were committed while on bail”.

The State also submitted that the trial judge “failed to have adequate regard to the very serious nature of the offending” and to the elements of “serious organised criminality” associated with Keogh’s possession of firearms and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.

Through his lawyers, Keogh submitted the mitigating factors in the case were that he co-operated with gardaí, entered an early guilty plea and that he was acting under “very significant duress” at the time.

Ms Justice Kennedy noted that the respondent had a drug-debt of €5K, “that had grown exponentially to €180K” and referenced Garda evidence at the trial that Keogh “was the kind of person who does what he’s told without asking questions and could do things without thinking through the consequences”.

In her judgement, Ms Justice Kennedy said that while the Court of Appeal was not persuaded that a headline sentence of seven years was in error,

it was satisfied that a mitigated sentence of 3.5 years, reduced to 1.5 years through the totality principle before the final year was suspended, was a “substantial departure from the norm” in relation to the firearms offences.

“If the only matter before this court was the drugs offence, then while that sentence of two years is a lenient one, we would not be justified in intervening, as it is not unduly lenient.

“However, the situation becomes much more serious in that the respondent continues to offend and to do so in a significant way, underpinned by organised criminal activity,” said Ms Justice Kennedy.

The appeal court found that the sentence imposed on the firearms offences was unduly lenient and that the adjustments for mitigation and the principle of totality were “too generous”.

Ms Justice Kennedy said the court was persuaded that the sentence imposed “did not reflect the seriousness of the totality of the offending”.

Ms Justice Kennedy said the court would quash the original sentences imposed and re-sentence Keogh to a total of nine years’ imprisonment.

Keogh was re-sentenced to two years for the possession of drugs, a concurrent three years for the first money laundering offence, a consecutive three years with two years suspended for the second money laundering offence and a consecutive five years for the firearms offences.