Garda jailed for stealing €70 of seized cannabis

• Published date: 26 March 2024
• Author: TOM TUITE
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

A garda who was drunk at work when she sent her partner a picture of drugs and a text message reading, “Baby, I got you this”, has been given six months in jail for stealing a €70 cannabis exhibit

Holly Lane (34) denied the theft of cannabis evidence seized by another officer, unlawful possession of cannabis and having it for sale or supply at Store Street Garda station on December 12th, 2021.

However, Judge John Hughes yesterday found her guilty following a non-jury trial at Dublin District Court. He imposed a nine-month sentence but suspended the final three months on condition that Lane remain on supervised probation for two years and attend counselling for alcohol and drug addiction.

Lane had been suspended since the date of the incident and her career in the force is over, her barrister David Staunton said.

Garda Sgt Coleen Doherty told the court she was the station officer in charge on the date in question and Lane’s shift started at 7pm. She said by 1.30am she had not seen Lane for several hours and went to find her. Garda Peter Byrne, from the community policing office, told her Lane was “unsteady on her feet”.

Lane was found in a second-floor changing room in a “dishevelled looking” state. Sgt Doherty said she believed Lane was intoxicated from the way she presented and spoke to her.

Changing-room locker

It was decided that Lane would have to be brought home. When colleagues looked for her car keys they found a half bottle of vodka in her bag and a quarter bottle of vodka in her changing-room locker.

Lane told them she had taken a “sip” and insisted she was not intoxicated. She thought her car keys were in a folder in the community office where she had been working earlier.

Sgt Doherty saw her folder on a desk and then located her bag, which she opened. There was a white plastic bag inside and a “strong smell of...