A Dublin man has been sentenced to three years in jail for possessing a gun and poor quality cocaine at his then home ten years ago.

Michael Carolan (39) fled the country but was eventually found living in the UK and brought back to Ireland to face the charges last year.

Detective Garda Liam Edison said that the 586g of powder found at the home contained just 0.6 to 1.4 per cent of cocaine. The rest was a legal anaesthetic used to cut cocaine.

Carolan pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing a double barrel sawn-off shotgun, 28 rounds of ammunition and the cocaine, which gardai valued at €27,800, at Kimmage Road West, Dublin on October 19, 2005.

Det Gda Edison told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, that Carolan initially denied knowledge of the gun and ammunition, some of which was found in a container of child’s colouring pencils, but admitted he was holding the drugs for a third party.

Carolan claimed he had been living at the premises with his partner and children for just over a month. Gardaí later found his handprint on the bag containing the firearm.

Carolan’s partner received a two and a half year sentence for her role in allowing the premises to be used in the drugs trade.

The detective agreed with Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, that it was fair to say the drugs found at the house contained “traces of cocaine.”

Mr O’Higgins said that the accused had a long history of drug abuse but has been clean for over six months. The court was given a psychological report which outlined abuse Carolan suffered while attending an industrial school as a child.

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Carolan held the gun under a degree of coercion but said it was “an insidious weapon” and sentenced him to three years for its possession along with two years to run concurrently on the drugs charges.

He backdated the sentences to when Carolan entered custody on August 23, 2014.