Suspended jail sentence for Cookstown man who didn't open appointment letters from Probation
A Cookstown man who didn’t open appointment letters from the Probation Service, has been given a three-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, at Dungannon Magistrates Court on Friday.
Twenty-seven-year-old James Murphy, from Westbury Way, admitted unlawfully possessing a quantity of cannabis on February 23 this year.
Imposing the suspended sentence, District Judge Francis Rafferty told Murphy that if he came back before this court again he could face a custodial sentence.
Mr Rafferty remarked that the defendant had been offered two interviews with Probation and did not turn up.
He said that Probation had “enough to doing” without having to chase after Murphy.
A defence lawyer explained that for some reason the defendant had not opened his mail.
Counsel pleaded with the court not to impose a jail sentence, but to leave “something hanging over his head.”
The judge also made an order for the destruction of the cannabis.