Latest news with #Crowe
Sunday World
21-07-2025
- Sunday World
Serial thief stole handbag with €27k worth of cancer medication from elderly tourist
Marese Craig (28) also stole a handbag from a mother who was tending to her baby in the neonatal ward of the Coombe Hospital A serial handbag thief who stole luggage containing almost €30,000 of cancer medication from an elderly tourist has been jailed for six and half years. Marese Craig (28), described by her own lawyers as a 'nuisance' for plaguing businesses and tourists, also stole a handbag containing holy medals from a mother minding her baby at a neonatal intensive care unit at a Dublin city centre hospital. Craig appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on a multitude of theft offences spanning 10 bills of indictment. She has 191 previous convictions including 18 burglaries, nine robberies, 102 thefts and 16 deception offences. She also has conviction for drugs and public order offences. The court heard Craig's offences were fuelled by a need to get money to buy drugs. She was readily identified on CCTV following most of the offences. She made admissions and expressed regret. Craig, of Bridgefoot Street, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to thefts, burglaries and possession of stolen bank cards at locations across the city centre on dates between 2022 and 2024. Passing sentence today, Judge Orla Crowe made reference to what she felt were the two more serious offences committed by Craig, including the theft of the handbag from a mother who was tending to her baby in the neonatal ward, and the theft of the American tourist's bag. Judge Crowe said these thefts were 'particularly egregious' while acknowledging that Craig had been upset by the fact that the man's medication was in the bag she stole. The judge said that Craig didn't know the contents of any bag she took during her spate of offending so she has 'to live with the consequences' of the fact that some of those bags may contain items which are of particular importance to the owner. Judge Crowe took into account the fact that Craig was a drug addict and has since expressed remorse for her crimes. She imposed consecutive sentences totalling seven-and-a-half years before she suspended the final 12 months of that term on strict conditions including that Craig engage with the Probation Service for 18 months following her release from prison. Judge Crowe described Craig's offending as 'deplorable' but said the court wished to give her some sort of opportunity to re-enter society in a constructive way. An investigating garda told Aoife O'Leary BL, prosecuting, that a 75-year-old American tourist on a long-planned trip to Ireland arrived at a city centre hotel on May 13, 2024 when he noticed one of his bags was missing. The bag contained €27,000 worth of cancer and other medication, an iPad and CPAP machine. Some of the medication was later discovered scattered nearby. His son was able to bring him a fresh supply and he could continue his holiday. Craig was identified from CCTV footage, arrested and interviewed. The court heard she felt bad when the contents were explained to her and her emotions got the better of her. She said she had not realised what was inside. She made admissions and apologised. In April 2024, Craig gained access to the neonatal intensive care unit at the Coombe Hospital and stole a handbag belonging to a mother who had left it unattended while she went to care for her child. The bag contained her purse, banks cards, holy medals and vouchers. The woman became aware her bag was missing when notifications appeared on her phone that her cards were being tapped at nearby shops. Craig was identified on CCTV using the card in shops. In March 2023, Craig distracted staff at a city centre restaurant while a co-accused went inside and grabbed cash totalling €2,200 from the manager who was counting it. Craig had asked to use the toilet prior to this and spotted the woman counting cash as she walked around. On another occasion, Craig was attempting to use cards at a store and when they were declined, she used the opportunity to grab €470 from the till. Many of the remaining thefts involved Craig gaining access to staff areas of businesses and restaurants and stealing personal items and bags from staff lockers. She also took handbags from people in restaurants and cafes while they eating their meals. The victims were at a loss of thousands of euro, wallets, bank cards, cash and personal items. Keith Spencer BL, defending, said in these offences Craig's aim was to offend undisturbed, avoiding detection and confrontation. He said she was not vigilant in avoiding detection long term and is clearly visible on CCTV of the thefts and is sometimes looking directly into the camera. Mr Spencer said Craig knows what a nuisance she has been to the city centre and society. He said she had plagued businesses and tourists visiting the city, making it a negative experience for many. He said Craig has had her own share of negative experience. He outlined how the death of her brother had caused a relapse into drug use and the offences were committed in a bid for money or items to convert to money for drugs. He said when she was not offending, she was procuring drugs. Mr Spencer said Craig had become involved in petty theft at a young age and began abusing substances. He said when she began using crack cocaine, it had a devastating effect on her life. He said that after release from a previous sentence, she started working in a hairdresser but her brother's death had sent her back into the vicious cycle of drug addiction. He said her mother is supportive and will be there to assist her on her release. He said his client is embarrassed by her situation and wants to be a good role model for younger members of her family. Counsel said she is capable of learning and aspired to a qualification in hairdressing. She wishes to live a different life to the chaotic one she currently has. She has not had drug treatment in the past. The Criminal Courts of Justice. Stock image Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 21st
Extra.ie
21-07-2025
- Extra.ie
Serial handbag thief stole bag containing €30k worth of cancer medication
A serial handbag thief who stole luggage containing almost €30,000 of cancer medication from an elderly tourist has been jailed for six and half years. Marese Craig (28), described by her own lawyers as a 'nuisance' for plaguing businesses and tourists, also stole a handbag containing holy medals from a mother minding her baby at a neonatal intensive care unit at a Dublin city centre hospital. Craig appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on a multitude of theft offences spanning 10 bills of indictment. She has 191 previous convictions including 18 burglaries, nine robberies, 102 thefts and 16 deception offences. She also has conviction for drugs and public order offences. A serial handbag thief who stole luggage containing almost €30,000 of cancer medication from an elderly tourist has been jailed for six and half years. Pic: Mark Gusev/Shutterstock The court heard Craig's offences were fuelled by a need to get money to buy drugs. She was readily identified on CCTV following most of the offences. She made admissions and expressed regret. Craig, of Bridgefoot Street, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to thefts, burglaries and possession of stolen bank cards at locations across the city centre on dates between 2022 and 2024. Passing sentence today, Judge Orla Crowe made reference to what she felt were the two more serious offences committed by Craig, including the theft of the handbag from a mother who was tending to her baby in the neonatal ward, and the theft of the American tourist's bag. The court heard Craig's offences were fuelled by a need to get money to buy drugs. Pic: Ross Mahon/Shutterstock Judge Crowe said these thefts were 'particularly egregious' while acknowledging that Craig had been upset by the fact that the man's medication was in the bag she stole. The judge said that Craig didn't know the contents of any bag she took during her spate of offending so she has 'to live with the consequences' of the fact that some of those bags may contain items which are of particular importance to the owner. Craig, of Bridgefoot Street, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to thefts, burglaries and possession of stolen bank cards at locations across the city centre on dates between 2022 and 2024. Pic: Mark Gusev/Shutterstock Judge Crowe took into account the fact that Craig was a drug addict and has since expressed remorse for her crimes. She imposed consecutive sentences totalling seven-and-a-half years before she suspended the final 12 months of that term on strict conditions including that Craig engage with the Probation Service for 18 months following her release from prison. Judge Crowe described Craig's offending as 'deplorable' but said the court wished to give her some sort of opportunity to re-enter society in a constructive way. Judge Crowe took into account the fact that Craig was a drug addict and has since expressed remorse for her crimes. Pic: Ross Mahon/Shutterstock An investigating garda told Aoife O'Leary BL, prosecuting, that a 75-year-old American tourist on a long-planned trip to Ireland arrived at a city centre hotel on May 13, 2024 when he noticed one of his bags was missing. The bag contained €27,000 worth of cancer and other medication, an iPad and CPAP machine. Some of the medication was later discovered scattered nearby. His son was able to bring him a fresh supply and he could continue his holiday. Craig was identified from CCTV footage, arrested and interviewed. The court heard she felt bad when the contents were explained to her and her emotions got the better of her. She said she had not realised what was inside. She made admissions and apologised. A file image of the Coombe Hospital. Pic: Sasko Lazarov/ In April 2024, Craig gained access to the neonatal intensive care unit at the Coombe Hospital and stole a handbag belonging to a mother who had left it unattended while she went to care for her child. The bag contained her purse, banks cards, holy medals and vouchers. The woman became aware her bag was missing when notifications appeared on her phone that her cards were being tapped at nearby shops. Craig was identified on CCTV using the card in shops. In March 2023, Craig distracted staff at a city centre restaurant while a co-accused went inside and grabbed cash totalling €2,200 from the manager who was counting it. Craig had asked to use the toilet prior to this and spotted the woman counting cash as she walked around. On another occasion, Craig was attempting to use cards at a store and when they were declined, she used the opportunity to grab €470 from the till. Many of the remaining thefts involved Craig gaining access to staff areas of businesses and restaurants and stealing personal items and bags from staff lockers. She also took handbags from people in restaurants and cafes while they eating their meals. The victims were at a loss of thousands of euro, wallets, bank cards, cash and personal items. Keith Spencer BL, defending, said in these offences Craig's aim was to offend undisturbed, avoiding detection and confrontation. He said she was not vigilant in avoiding detection long term and is clearly visible on CCTV of the thefts and is sometimes looking directly into the camera. Mr Spencer said Craig knows what a nuisance she has been to the city centre and society. He said she had plagued businesses and tourists visiting the city, making it a negative experience for many. He said Craig has had her own share of negative experience. He outlined how the death of her brother had caused a relapse into drug use and the offences were committed in a bid for money or items to convert to money for drugs. He said when she was not offending, she was procuring drugs. Mr Spencer said Craig had become involved in petty theft at a young age and began abusing substances. He said when she began using crack cocaine, it had a devastating effect on her life. He said that after release from a previous sentence, she started working in a hairdresser but her brother's death had sent her back into the vicious cycle of drug addiction. He said her mother is supportive and will be there to assist her on her release. He said his client is embarrassed by her situation and wants to be a good role model for younger members of her family. Counsel said she is capable of learning and aspired to a qualification in hairdressing. She wishes to live a different life to the chaotic one she currently has. She has not had drug treatment in the past
The Spinoff
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Beloved Auckland cinema faces backlash for ‘racist' AI-generated Russell Crowe video
It may have been intended to be ironic, but a 10-minute AI-made trailer created by an American film director for the Hollywood in Avondale was met with 'full-on pitchforks and torches' when it ran before a movie this week. What stands out straight away is the fact you can't really tell what it's supposed to be. It's Russell Crowe, but with a contorted figure that expands and thins, gets older and younger, generated completely by AI. Then there are the signs with the jumbled-up lettering that can't even properly spell the name of the cinema it's promoting – Auckland's the Hollywood in Avondale. Then you see the AI-generated Māori warriors whose tā moko are just geometric scrawls, and your theory that the popcorn's laced almost seems confirmed. Created by US filmmaker Damon Packard and written and animated by ChatGPT, the video played before an advance screening of Andrew DeYoung's film Friendship at the Hollywood in Avondale on Wednesday. The historic cinema is an Auckland icon, an independent haven for film buffs, and the clip was met with boos from the crowd. In the 10-minute clip, titled 'Hollywood Avondale PSA', Crowe guides viewers through a colonial Aotearoa, then finally modern-day West Auckland, while waxing lyrical about the golden days of cinema and bemoaning today's teens preferring TikTok over Tarkovsky. The video has copped flak online for its AI origins, which one movie-goer said fell short of the theatre's standards and reputation, and its depictions of certain ethnic groups. The Māori in the beginning of the video wear tā moko that bear no cultural significance or meaning, and when Crowe is transported to a modern-day Aotearoa and is lamenting the state of the society's teenagers, most of the phone-obsessed young people in the video are depicted as Asian. Comedian Guy Williams told The Spinoff he was proud to throw the first boo at the 'genuinely quite bizarre and insane' video on Wednesday night. He said he believed it was real for the first 30-40 seconds, before he realised Crowe's body and face kept distorting and ageing and then de-ageing, and then the AI-generated Māori appeared. 'I'm a pretty white guy,' Williams said, 'but that didn't seem right.' Williams said the video received a 'visceral response' from the crowd, which he said comprised mostly fellow comedians and media industry professionals. Currently in the process of making New Zealand Tomorrow for Netflix, Williams said the video spurred 'low-level anxiety' about the role of AI in creative industries. 'If their point was to challenge the changing landscape of media, the piece itself was a terrifying glimpse of the future,' he said. 'Occasionally things need a good boo,' Williams added. 'The whole thing was a fucking nightmare.' Comedian Liv McKenzie also witnessed the 'true dog shit' video, and said the experience had left her 'bewildered'. She said the Hollywood was held to a higher standard than big chains like Hoyts, and she couldn't 'believe how far they missed the mark'. That feeling was shared among the crowd, she said, who started booing, heckling and 'banging on the walls' as the video went on. 'It was full-on pitchforks and torches,' McKenzie said. The depiction of Māori was 'very misguided' and resembled a 'racist caricature', said McKenzie. 'Everyone was a bit like, 'hmmm, OK, someone's going to get fired.'' Matt Timpson, owner of the Hollywood, told The Spinoff the video was created by 'an underground artist in the US with knowledge of Aotearoa limited to a few Google searches'. He said the intention of the video was to create an 'ironic' public service announcement championing the Hollywood's 35mm film presentations. 'The audience reactions have been diverse, and it was never intended to cause offence, nor become a staple in our pre-show programming which changes all the time,' Timpson said. 'We acknowledge that this was a complete misfire. We hope to see you all soon.' In a YouTube comment section, Packard said he had switched to creating content mostly made by AI in recent years for financial reasons. '[There is] lack of proper funding to make a live action film I'd feel worthy and worthwhile of putting the time into,' he wrote. 'I guess you could say I'm weary of those kinds of extreme limitations.' In the comment section for the PSA itself, Packard confirmed he used ChatGPT to create the video, and that he had Crowe's permission to use his likeness. 'I'm a friend of Russell Crowe, he told me I could use it,' Packard wrote.
Scotsman
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Victoria Crowe at 80: 'For me, art has always been a way of trying to understand life'
With two major exhibitions marking her 80th birthday at this year's Edinburgh Art Festival, Victoria Crowe talks to Susan Mansfield about how her work has evolved during her long and successful career Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... 'I've been thinking about the whole idea of what you do at 80,' says Victoria Crowe. We are sitting in her kitchen a couple of weeks before the opening of Victoria Crowe at 80: Decades at the Scottish Gallery, and Shifting Surfaces, the parallel exhibition of tapestries inspired by her work at Dovecot Studios. 'What you do at 80 is almost the same as what you do at 20, but with a huge gap of experience in between.' In this gap, Crowe has become one of Scotland's - and the UK's - most acclaimed painters. And because artists don't really do retirement, the Scottish Gallery show is made up largely of new work, following a decision to revisit the Pentlands landscapes she was drawn to when she first moved to Scotland in the late 1960s. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Victoria Crowe, Orkney, 2023 | Kenneth Gray 'I had a sketchbook from 1969 and thought it would be interesting to go back to these early things, to look at who I was then, who I am now. It was half exciting and half in trepidation because you've always got that fear that your best work is your early work and nothing has happened since!' She laughs softly. Crowe was 23, newly graduated from the Royal College of Art, when she and her husband Michael Walton moved north to take up teaching jobs at Edinburgh College of Art. They settled in the hamlet of Kittleyknowe near Silverburn, 1,000 feet up on the edge of Pentlands. Having grown up in Kingston upon Thames, she had never seen landscapes like these. 'I can remember standing in the freezing cold waiting for the early bus to Edinburgh. The moon was still in the sky, the hills were right behind me and there were all these incredible patterns, it was such a powerful experience. These things become part of your inner resource that you reflect on.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She was, and still is, fascinated by the patterns of snow melt on the hills: landscape as abstraction. She would have liked to be an abstract artist, she says, and the new work is more abstract, while still being richly descriptive. Works like Higher Reaches and Thaw, Traces, Distance probe at the edges of the visible, the ungraspable point at which hill becomes sky. Detail from The Silence of Winter by Victoria Crowe | Andy Philipson There's a sense in which Crowe's paintings are always about what is beyond sight. Her shimmering snowscapes and firey sunset trees are never illustrative, they are always about something more, portals into a realm of ideas, feelings, memories. She has relished the chance to paint portraits because of the opportunities to discuss ideas with her subjects, people like psychoanalyst RD Laing, physicist Peter Higgs, medical scientist Janet Vaughan, who was part of the first medical team into Belsen. There is a rigorous, questing intellect in her work, a drive to understand some of life's biggest questions. It was her interest in liminal spaces which took her to Orkney in 2022, on a residency supported by the RSA and the Pier Arts Centre. 'I'd heard about the white nights of the northern summer. I really wanted to experience that because, when landscape is at the end of the day, in the twilight, in a liminal state, it's incredibly powerful. 'At first, I thought, what am I doing here? I can't paint clouds! But I was making notes in my sketckbook, and I'd written down 'they're like great snowfields in the sky, illuminated from within'. Suddenly, I knew how I could paint them - it was like losing yourself in a landscape. In one way or another, I've been painting about [Orkney] ever since.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Detail from Threshold Between Sky and Sea, Known and Unknown by Victoria Crowe | Andy Philipson She was delighted when she had the opportunity to work with weavers at Dovecot Studies to create two large tufted rugs based on her Orkney skyscapes. 'I found the only way I could get the luminosity was to paint in an almost pointillist way so they had to be small, but I thought it would be wonderful to see them on a bigger scale. It was like recreating the splendour of the night sky.' There is also a group of paintings in the Scottish Gallery show gathered from the past six decades: early landscapes from Kittleyknowe, and later work from Italy, and Venice, where she kept a studio for nearly 20 years. There are also two paintings from her series A Shepherd's Life, done in the 1980s, about her neighbour, shepherdess Jenny Armstrong, which was shown at National Galleries Scotland: Portrait in 2000. 'It's almost like looking back at your life,' she says, thoughtfully. 'I think life evolves and changes, and the work has evolved and changed. I do feel a sense of a journey travelled, and that is quite a satisfying thing. I always find it hard when people say: 'Have you got any more paintings about the shepherdess?' and I'm thinking: 'No! Come on now, guys, that was 40-odd years ago, I'm a different person now!'' Victoria Crowe | Kenneth Gray Also included are paintings of her daughter Gemma and son Ben, who died in 1995 aged 22 from a rare form of mouth cancer. 'These things all feed into your life and they all affect your work,' she says. A bright portrait of Ben at 19, leaving for university, is echoed in another painting three years later, the same profile fading into shadow next to a vivid moon. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Art and drawing have always been, for me, a way of trying to understand life. There have been so many issues that I can deal with through painting that I can't necessarily deal with through close friendships or whatever else. Art is the method of communicating both to myself and other people.' The paintings from this time often include objects, sometimes photographs or fragments of other paintings, powerfully infused with meaning, whether or not the specific resonances are known to the viewer. However, in her most recent work, the objects have gone. 'It's odd, because I don't find the need to put then in now. It's more about sensation, experience, reflection. I think you can still speak about the condition of being alive in this world with any references [to people].' Articulate in Winter, by Victoria Crowe | Andy Philipson Crowe's work is often described as beautiful, and rightly so. But it's possible to be distracted by beauty, and not pick up on the darker references - which are most certainly there - to grief, war, climate change. 'I think it's an interesting dichotomy that runs through a lot of the stuff I do. You can look at those pale trees, for instance, and the truth is they're still there and they're still beautiful, but the terrible truth also is that there is always destruction going on. Beauty is nothing to do with nice or gentle feelings, it's deeply important for the human condition. Art can be very, very political, whether it's promoting quiet reflection or angst and sarcasm and humour. It's all part of the same function.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Collaborative projects, such as Winterreise: A Parallel Journey, in which opera singer Matthew Rose sang Schubert's song cycle accompanied by a film made from images from Crowe's paintings, have helped her understand her work in new ways. 'It gave me the chance to look at the subtext of my own paintings,' she says. 'It was almost like guiding people through a much bigger vision. I think if I went to art college now I'd want to do something like film or video, something to expand the images.' What drives her on is 'curiosity'. 'I want to do more with music and with poetry, more with extending the idea of what painting can be about for me.' So what you do at 80 is, indeed, a lot like what you do at 20, because the big unanswered questions remain, but there are always new ways of trying to understand them.
Sunday World
16-07-2025
- Sunday World
Dealer at ‘highest level' of Dublin drugs network is jailed for 15 years
Judge Orla Crowe said that gardaí are satisfied that 'no people were higher up nationally' than 52-year-old Andrew Pender A man described as the manager of the 'entire cell of a drug distribution network in the Dublin area' has been jailed for 15 years after he was caught with almost nine million worth of assorted drugs, over €1 million in cash and a stolen garda uniform. Judge Orla Crowe said that gardaí are satisfied that 'no people were higher up nationally' than 52-year-old Andrew Pender. The judge said it was a 'a highly sophisticated operation' that involved two vehicles which had been adapted to have hidden compartments to store drugs, a rented shipping container, a stolen garda uniform and a falsely registered delivery company. Pender of Ely Green, Tallaght, Dublin 24 pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of an assortment of drugs for sale or supply at The Ward in Co Meath on July 19, 2024. He has three previous convictions for minor road traffic offences. He further pleaded guilty to having two vehicles – a Peugeot and a Mercedes Luton van – which had been fitted with a compartment in circumstances giving rise to the inference that he possessed or controlled it for the purpose connected with the commission, preparation, facilitation or instigation of a drug trafficking offence on the same date. Finally, he pleaded guilty to money laundering of €1,149,920 in cash at The Ward, his home and his parents' home also on the same date. The cocaine found was valued at almost €4.47 million, the ketamine had a value of just over €2.5 million, the cannabis was worth €1.29 million and the MDMA was valued at just over €700,00. In sentencing Pender today Judge Crowe noted that Pender did not assist the garda investigation but acknowledged that he pleaded guilty to the offences at an early stage. She accepted that he had a long-standing addiction to cocaine which has had medical consequences for him before she noted that he suffered from COPD, that he had heart problems and recently had surgery on his nose. She further accepted that there was a large number of references before the court that spoke well of Pender and a letter of remorse he had written. Judge Crowe said that the garda evidence was that Pender 'managed the entire cell of drug distribution for the Dublin area' and gardaí are satisfied that he was not under duress or pressure to run this operation. She noted that he was responsible for both the movement of cash and drugs. She said he was in 'clear control' of the operation and 'working hands on' before describing the evidence as 'obvious' that Pender was at 'a level of involvement at the highest possible level' and that there was 'no people higher up than he nationally'. Judge Crowe said it was an 'inherently very grave' case noting the impact drugs and drug trafficking at this level have on society. She also noted that "chillingly" Pender had possession of a garda uniform. She set a headline sentence of 20 years in prison noting that the maximum penalty available to the court was life imprisonment. Judge Crowe said she was taking into account mitigating features of the case including Pender's personal circumstances and his plea of guilty before she imposed a sentence of 15 years in prison. The sentence was backdated to when Pender first went into custody earlier this month and he was given credit for time previously served on remand. Judge Crowe acceded to a request from Joe Mulrean BL, prosecuting, to have the drugs, cash, vehicles and shipping container seized during the investigation forfeited to the State. She refused an application by Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending to suspend part of the sentence on the basis of Pender's chronic drug addiction. Detective Inspector Ken Holohan, of the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT), previously gave evidence that Pender was arrested following what was described as 'an elaborate ongoing investigation' after it was determined that Pender was 'a person of trust'. Pender was stopped while he was driving a Peugeot and a further search of the vehicle revealed €9,000 in cash, a small quantity of cocaine and a key. It was soon discovered that this was the key for a rented shipping container situated in rural Meath. A warrant was obtained to search this container and a Mercedes Luton van and a stolen garda uniform, along with a stab vest, was also discovered. The van had been fitted with a hidden compartment, behind a hydraulic device. It was considered a sophisticated compartment which required an expert to access it. In this compartment, 16 blocks of cash and two kilogrammes of cocaine were found. The rest of the drugs were found in the shipping container. Pender had been renting the container for some time, paying €200 per month in rent. It later transpired that Pender had asked two separate people to register the two vehicles in their own names. Pender had also registered a company in his name in November 2021. It was registered to his home address but he did not operate the company as a business. The Peugeot that he had been stopped driving also had a false floor fitted to hide a compartment under the seats. Pender's home and his parents' home were searched during which the documentation in relation to the vehicle was found along with further quantities of cash. Mr Ó Lideadha submitted to the court that Pender had the money and drugs in order to pay off a drug debt but the gardaí do not accept this. Counsel said Pender had damaged his nose due to his 'chronic cocaine habit' and he had to have part of his nose surgically removed recently as a result. Andrew Pender Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th
