Pubdate: Wed, 09 Feb 2000
Source: Examiner, The (Ireland)
Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2000
Contact:  http://www.examiner.ie/
Author: Liam Heylin

CRIMINAL TAKES THE BUS AND TALKS HIS WAY TO PRISON

ONE of the most inept drug deals of all time came unstuck for
Ireland’s unluckiest criminal on the 5am bus from Dublin to Cork.

A lot of things went wrong for 25 year old Gavin Cray that morning but
the first of them was where he chose to sit.

“Is this seat taken?” he asked.

“No,” came the reply from Detective Garda William Dawes, one of the
most experienced members of the drugs squad in Cork city.

The detective’s first impression was that Cray was high on some kind
of drug.

Step two in Cray’s downfall came when he took three packets from his
pocket, just to look at them. The detective correctly identified them
as heroin but said nothing.

But it wasn’t until Cray’s mobile phone rang that he really set about
digging a hole for himself.

“I have the stuff, you won’t believe this shit,” Cray
said.

It must have taken a lot for the detective not to turn to him and say
that he really couldn’t believe it either.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. Discretion proved to be
beyond Cray this time too. “I have the stuff. Meet me at the bus
station. Bring plenty of money.”

But Cray, from Greenmount Buildings, Fernwood Avenue, Tallaght,
Dublin, had yet to play his trump card. Relaxing in the ill founded
knowledge of a job well done he produced a nodge of cannabis and
rolled up a joint which he smoked on the bus.

Detective Dawes decided not to arrest Cray on the journey in case
there was a scuffle on the crowded bus. So, shrewdly, he told a girl
who was getting off the bus along the way that he had a bad leg and
asked would she mind getting him something in the shop.

Closer to Cork, he used the bad leg story again and asked Cray if he
would sit on the inside so that he could stretch his leg in the aisle.
Cray agreed, not realising he had effectively signed his warrant to
prison for dealing pounds 60 worth of heroin. The detective introduced
himself and told Cray the bad news when they reached Cork where the
dealer was well and truly cornered.

For the record Cray was given three months in prison at Cork District
Court yesterday, on top of the nine months he is already serving for
another crime. 
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