A DUBLIN MAN who was yesterday given a seven-year jail sentence f0r possession of cocaine came home from wedding to find a note on his kitchen table – left by Gardaí after they had seized 1.6kg of the drug from his house.

Sean Fitzgerald pleaded guilty to possession of the drug at his home in Mulhuddart on September 25, 2009, and was given a seven-year term with the final two years suspended.

The Irish Daily Star reports that the court was told how Gardaí had gone to Fitzgerald (25)’s home in Mulhuddart in possession of a search warrant, having been given a confidential tip-off.

When there was no answer from the door, they accessed the house through a kitchen window that was left open and seized the drugs, with a street value of about €114,000.

After returning home after being out at a wedding all day, he visited Blanchardstown Garda Station to explain his absence – and was then arrested on charges of possessing the drug.

Fitzgerald said he had been “made to hold” the drugs on behalf of dealers, being obliged to follow their instructions as he was in debt to them to the tune of €8,000 having become addicted to the drug himself.

Judge Katherine Delahunt of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court noted that Fitzgerald had been fully cooperative with the investigation and had entered a guilty plea, suspending the last two years of his seven-year jail sentence.