upload images free. A Westmeath man who fled to the UK after being caught with €350,000 worth of drugs has avoided a jail term.

James Packenham (32) was caught four years after his escape when he returned to Dublin on the death of his mother. Gardaí arrested him on the day she was buried after becoming aware he might return for the funeral.

Judge Patricia Ryan accepted that he was holding the drugs, with included 15,000 ecstasy tablets, for others who then forced him to leave the country.

She imposed a four year sentence, suspended in full on condition that he carries out 240 hours community service.

Packenham of Cluain Craoibh, Kinnegad pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of €189,000 worth of cocaine, €158,000 of ecstasy tablets and €2,800 of cannabis at Westend Gate, Tallaght, on September 6, 2007.

Detective Garda Gavin Cooke said Packenham had been told by others in the drug trade to rent an apartment to store the drugs. Gardaí later got a search warrant for the apartment and arrived when Packenham was not there.

When Packenham returned he put the key in the door but didn’t hear the alarm go off. This made him suspicious and he fled before entering the apartment.

Prosecuting counsel Derek Cooney BL said he was ordered by the drugs’ owners to go the UK and stay there. When he later phoned these people to ask if he could return home they said no and burnt a car out in front of his mother’s house “to send him a message.”

Packenham later returned to Ireland but hid out in the midlands until he heard of the death of his mother in May 2013. He returned to Dublin and was arrested by gardaí on the day of her funeral.

Defence counsel Damien Colgan SC submitted that Packenham entered an early guilty plea once he was caught and was very co-operative with gardaí.