A 45-year-old landscape gardener with 193 criminal convictions has been jailed for four months after a police sniffer dog found a stash of drugs hidden under a shrub in his back garden.

Nigel Mark Kennedy, of Lisgoole Park, Enniskillen, had denied all knowledge of the drugs, which were discovered along with Viagra tablets in a glass bottle, wrapped inside a sock.

However, at his trial in July he was convicted of unlawfully possessing the Class A drug cocaine.

The case was then adjourned for the preparation of a pre-sentence report by a probation officer.

When it resumed on Monday of this week District Judge Nigel Broderick told Kennedy the unlawful possession of drugs is a serious offence and the possession of Class A cocaine is particularly serious.

He said that in his view the custody threshold had been crossed and he jailed Kennedy for four months.

However, he released him on bail pending the outcome of an appeal against the sentence and conviction.

A police officer had told Fermanagh Court that on October 4, last year, police searched Kennedy’s home. Viagra tablets were found hidden in an extractor fan in the kitchen. A police sniffer dog, trained to locate drugs such as heroin, cannabis and cocaine, indicated that there was something buried under a shrub in the garden, about six to eight feet from the back door. Officers unearthed a black sock and inside it was a glass bottle containing strips of Viagra tablets and 10 plastic bags, each containing approximately one gram of white powder. The items were taken to a forensic science laboratory for testing. The white powder was found to be cocaine, of about four per cent purity.

Cross-examined by defence barrister Gavin Cairns, the officer said he wanted to know if it belonged to Kennedy so he asked him: “Would your fingerprints be on that bottle?” The officer said Kennedy replied: “No way, not a chance.” He confirmed that no fingerprints at all were found on the bottle or the tablets.

He said he had also asked if anyone else had access to the garden and Kennedy had replied that there had been teenagers on his property.

The officer pointed out that there were similarities between the Viagra tablets in the bottle and those found in the kitchen in terms of colour, design and shape.

Kennedy told the court he knew nothing about the bottle of drugs buried in his back garden but admitted putting the Viagra in the extractor fan and that it was for his personal use.

The prosecutor told him: “These items (the Viagra tablets) are not a controlled substance and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you having them but you chose to hide them.” Kennedy replied that he was hiding them from the children.