An electrician has been jailed for three years after he admitted money laundering almost €270,000 in cash which was found in bundles scattered around his home and van.
Patrick O'Reilly (36), of Parsons Court, Newcastle, came forward to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last month on signed District Court pleas.
He pleaded guilty to possessing €269,280 in various amounts of cash discovered in his home and in a breakfast cereal box in his work van on June 14th, 2022.
O'Reilly also admitted possessing a small quantity of cocaine on the same date and having the Signal messaging app on a mobile phone in order to assist in committing money-laundering.
At a hearing on Thursday, the court heard that O'Reilly told gardaí who arrived to search his home that he owed a debt.
Passing sentence, Judge Orla Crowe said this explanation of a debt was “hard to square” given that O'Reilly had €20,000 in savings in a bank account at the time.
“He was caught red-handed,” said the judge. “He had been entrusted with a huge amount of money on behalf of a West Dublin-based gang operating internationally in the importation of drugs.”
Judge Crowe set a headline sentence of four years and described O'Reilly as “vital cog” in the money laundering operation, whose role was to count, bundle and seal significant amounts of cash with a vacuum packer.
She reduced the sentence by one year based on several mitigating factors including O'Reilly's early plea in the District Court, his cooperation with gardaí and the fact that it was his first time to engage in this type of offending.
The court heard that O'Reilly was one of six people arrested as part of an investigation into the activities of an organised crime group based in West Dublin which is involved in the importation and distribution of controlled drugs.
Detective Garda Liam Mangan, from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, said O'Reilly came to their attention in connection with suspected money-laundering linked to the group.
Det Mangan told the court that O'Reilly's apartment was searched in June 2022 on foot of a warrant.
The detective agreed with Edward Doocey BL, prosecuting, that gardaí entered the apartment by force and found the accused in a ground floor bedroom, with large amounts of cash around him.
Further quantities of cash were found stacked in bundles in different rooms, totalling €179,000. Three mobile phones and vacuum-packing equipment were also seized.
A further search of O'Reilly's work van yielded just under €90,000 in cash concealed in a breakfast cereal box and a tool box.
Debt
Gardaí also found a small quantity of cocaine, which O'Reilly said was for his own personal use. O'Reilly told gardaí he had received the cash two days earlier and that none of it was his.
“This is my first time involved in criminality. I've not made any money or profited from this. I owe a debt, that's it,” O'Reilly told gardaí.
The mobile phones were analysed and one of them revealed the encrypted messaging application Signal, which can delete messages once they have been read.
This phone was found to contain messages between a number of people to arrange collection of the cash in the hours and days before the apartment was searched. These communications led to another person being arrested.
The court heard that O'Reilly has had full-time employment as an electrician and was in receipt of Pandemic Unemployment Payment in 2020 and 2021.
O'Reilly has two previous convictions for public order offences stemming from a single incident in 2007.
John Berry BL, defending, said his client was using cocaine at the time of the offence; that he had accumulated a debt and that was how he involved himself in criminality.
Defence counsel presented several testimonials on behalf of O'Reilly, including one from the company where he has worked for seven years, describing him as one their best employees.
The reference described O'Reilly as hardworking and dedicated and said they would happily take him back.
Another letter from O'Reilly's ex-partner and the mother of their child described him as a “good and reliable father” who was fully engaged in the raising of their teenage son.
O'Reilly also wrote a handwritten letter to the court apologising and taking full responsibility for the offence.
He said that in 2021 he had found himself struggling to cope after the loss of a friend and had turned to drink and drugs. O'Reilly said it had been a downward spiral and that he had run up a huge bill using cocaine.
Judge Orla Crowe also ordered the confiscation of the cash.
