A student at the Dundalk Institute of Technology was sentenced to two years and 10 months' imprisonment yesterday for selling drugs.
However, Judge Raymond Groarke said he would suspend the final two years to allow Graham Boland (20), Fatima Court, Dundalk, to resume his studies next October.
Boland, who admitted having 400 ecstasy tablets for sale or supply, had told gardai he was selling drugs for just two weeks before they searched the house he was sharing with two other youths last March.
Passing sentence at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Groarke said it was clear Boland was involved for considerably longer than two weeks. "Ecstasy tablets are supplied to young people. He was providing drugs for young people partly [to feed] his own habit and for profit," the judge said.
Boland told Det Garda Charlie Geoghan, of the Dundalk Drugs Unit, he sold the ecstasy in Caesar's nightclub and the Arc nightclub. When a garda searched his bedroom he found tablets with a street value of £4,000.
Det Garda Geoghan agreed with Mr Kevin Seagrave, defending, that Boland was from a respectable family and had been a user of ecstasy. Mr Seagrave said his client had changed his lifestyle, moved back home and started a four-year course in electronics since he was arrested.
The judge said he would suspend the final two years of the sentence to allow Mr Boland to resume his third-level studies next October.