When gardaí searched Croatian national Miren Rakovac’s Cork home, they found cocaine, cannabis, scales, bags, phones and €35,685 in cash. He admitted the money came from drug dealing. The trial court left him facing one year in custody. The State appealed, and the Court of Appeal ruled that outcome unduly lenient.
The search and admissions
A search on 25 October 2020 recovered 256 grams of cocaine valued at €17,943 and 155 grams of cannabis valued at €3,102. Gardaí also found baggies, electronic scales, two phones, €35,000 in a safe and €685 in Rakovac’s wallet. He unlocked the phones, opened the safe and admitted both the sale and supply of drugs and that the cash was the proceeds of his dealing.
The sentence did not survive appeal
Rakovac pleaded guilty to possession of drugs for sale or supply and money laundering. In February 2022 the Circuit Court imposed two years and six months, suspending the final 18 months, and took the money-laundering count into consideration. The Director of Public Prosecutions challenged that result.
On 10 October 2022, the Court of Appeal held that the sentence was unduly lenient. It said the possession of criminal proceeds required its own sentence. The court imposed concurrent three-year terms on both counts, suspending the final six months. The immediate term was therefore two and a half years, and forfeiture of the €35,685 was confirmed.
Mitigation in the record
The approved judgment records that Rakovac had no previous convictions in Ireland or abroad, cooperated fully, entered an exceptionally early plea, lost chef work during the pandemic and engaged with rehabilitation. Those facts justified a substantial reduction from the five-year headline selected by the appeal court. They did not justify the original one-year custodial outcome.
Cost and proceeds
Two and a half years at the Irish Prison Service 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space gives a gross scale benchmark of €247,680. It is not a case invoice and excludes policing, prosecution, courts and legal aid. The separate €35,685 forfeiture was money recovered by the State, not a taxpayer cost, and is not added to the benchmark.