The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has alleged in the High Court that a woman’s home in Co Laois was purchased and renovated with proceeds derived from burglaries.
The court was told Mary Cash (née Kiely) pleaded guilty at Waterford Circuit Court on Tuesday to three money laundering charges relating to three cash seizures totalling about €27,000.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens was content he could permanently freeze these cash seizures as direct or indirect proceeds of crime on account of this plea and Ms Cash’s decision not to contest the CAB’s claims in relation to them.
He reserved his ruling on the CAB’s request for him to make the same orders in respect of her family house on Harpur’s Lane in Portlaoise, a Volkswagen Golf, other cash amounts and various luxury goods, including designer bags and jewellery. Ms Cash denies the allegations in relation to these.
The bureau’s case, said its barrister Shelley Horan, is that the items were purchased with crime proceeds – namely burglaries allegedly carried out around the country by Ms Cash’s husband, Andrew Cash, and her brother, Henry Kiely.
While referenced by the CAB, Mr Cash and Mr Kiely are not parties in the proceedings against Ms Cash (32).
Lawyers for Ms Cash told the court Mr Cash has never been charged in relation to alleged proceeds of crime.
He received a two-year prison sentence in 2021 for endangering the lives of two gardaí and damaging their patrol car by driving at them in May 2018 on the Old Mallow Road in Cork.
'Lavish lifestyle'
Ms Horan said Mr and Ms Cash lived a “very lavish lifestyle”, including making purchases in London department store Harrods, that cannot be attributed to a known legitimate income.
Ms Cash has received €140,000 in means-tested social welfare payments, while there is no record of Mr Cash having a bank account or being employed, the court heard.
Ms Horan said a significant amount of cash, with no apparent legitimate source, flowed through bank accounts linked to Ms Cash.
Her Harpur’s Lane home was bought without a mortgage in 2018 for €100,000 that came from a bank account into which large sums of cash had been lodged, Ms Horan said. The house was later substantially renovated, she added.
The court heard lodgements totalling €397,000 were made into one of Ms Cash’s bank account between 2015 and 2019. The majority of the funds are unexplained, the CAB claims.
Ms Cash was stopped and searched in July 2019, which led to gardaí seizing Qatari Riyal worth about €1,000, while a search of a Kilkenny storage locker the next month yielded €9,000 and £15,000, she said.
Meanwhile, said Ms Horan, normal daily living expenses do not come from her bank accounts, suggesting these are paid for in cash. Ms Cash did not pay tax on purported trade in Ireland or Australia, she added.
Barrister Adrian O’Higgins said there was no dispute between his client, Ms Cash, and the bureau over three of the items. It is “quite obvious” she uses cash on a daily basis, which is “certainly not illegal”, he said.
His client has traded in horses, caravans, jewellery and other goods since she was young, he said, adding that she accepts tax liabilities in relation to this. Mr O’Higgins asked the court to take into account Ms Cash’s recent guilty plea to three money laundering charges at Kilkenny Circuit Court.
In a sworn statement, Ms Cash said the €125,000 cash she deposited into her account in 2015 arose from her work as a cleaner, childminder and escort in Australia.
This money was used to purchase her home, she said. Ms Cash also averred that her husband currently works as a handyman and provides for her and their two children.
The judge said he would give his ruling on most of the items at a later date.
