This article is from page 8 of the 2011-05-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
A ROMANIAN brother and sister who were caught with 25,000 cigarettes between them at Shannon Airport almost two years ago have been fined. Dafina Danila and Eugen Danila both with addresses at Lower Sherrod Street, Dublin 1 appeared at Shannon District Court on Thursday, charged with offences contrary to the Finance Act (2001).
The court was told that Ms Danila was stopped at Shannon Airport on November 7, 2009, with 13,800 cigarettes in her possession. The value of the cigarettes was € 5763.57. The court heard that the offences carry a fine and potential prison sentence.
Mr Danila was charged with having 12,200 cigarettes in his possession on the same date at Shannon Airport. The value of the cigarettes was € 5095.33.
The court was told that the maximum number of cigarettes allowed to a person returning from Tenerife is 250. The pair, who have no previous offences, were on their way back from Tenerife. State Solicitor, Martin Linnane, told the court that Ms Dafina has said that the cigarettes were for personal use. He said that in order for one person to consume over 13,000 cigarettes for personal use, they would have to smoke around 36 cigarettes every day for a year. Judge Joseph Mangan remarked that you would need a “spare chimney to get through that (amount) in a year”.
Judge Mangan said that a person who is returning from holiday may bring back a “moderate” amount of cigarettes for personal use.
However he added that there are other times when a person brings back cigarettes for the purposes of a more sinister application. Mr Linnane said he was not aware that this was the case. Judge Mangan imposed a fine of € 350.