CITY BROTHERS GIVEN SUSPENDED SENTENCES FOR DRUGS CHARGES

Date Published: 16-Jul-2010

Two city brothers have been given suspended 5 year prison sentences for allowing their home to be used as a drugs den by several of the city's biggest heroin dealers.

56 year old Gerard Stiffe and 50 year old old Michael Stiffe of 21 St Dominic's Road, the Claddagh, pleaded guilty to the offence at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last May.

The court heard Gerard Stiffe has been unemployed for years and is a chronic alcoholic, while Michael Stiffe is also an alcoholic who suffers from Depression and schizophrenia.

Both men were described by their barristers as vulnerable men of low IQ who should be in sheltered accommodation as they're not able to even mind themselves.