AN Irishman who claimed he had been enjoying some alone time before being caught with bullets at his home has been handed a suspended sentence.
Glen Synott, 23, told Gardaí he was out of breath and sweating when they arrived at his Dublin home because he had been “having a wank”.
Detectives were suspicious that he was attempting to flee or hide something at the time and rejected his explanation.
Synott, of Carnlough Road in Cabra, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of firearm ammunition under suspicious circumstances.
Judge Terrence O’Sullivan handed him a five-year suspended sentence under the conditions that he remains drug free, engage with addiction services, submits to random urine analyses and keeps to appointments with probation services.
Mr Synott’s original arrest, in which the 23-year-old claimed he had worked up a sweat masturbating, occurred on February 22, 2016.
Garda Christopher Sweeney told the court that he saw Synott in the hallway, out of breath and perspiring heavily, after acting on a search warrant of the Cabra home.
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Officer Sweeney said he found Mr Sweeney’s behaviour to be “suspicious”.
Further searches of the property uncovered four 9mm Makarov calibre rounds hidden in a black sock beneath decking in the back garden.
When questioned Mr Synott admitted he had concealed the sock there.
Asked if he had anything further to add to his statement, the Dublin native blamed his shortness of breath and perspiration on a “wank”.
Garda Sweeney, who rejected the claim, said the explanation had been given in a “flippant manner”.
Synott has two previous convictions for public order and public indecency after urinating in public.
He also has a third conviction for not wearing a helmet while a passenger on a motorcycle.
Judge O’Sullivan sentenced Synott to a five-year custodial sentence but suspended it pending changed behaviour and practices.
