CRIME FIGURE Patrick "Dutchy" Holland, who denied involvement in the killing of Veronica Guerin, was convicted yesterday in London of masterminding a plot to get £10 million ransom in a kidnapping .
A lorry driver from Rostrevor, Co Down who was also part of the gang involved was also found guilty and will be sentenced later.
Holland was secretly filmed and taped planning to abduct a businessman and keep him prisoner until the ransom had been paid.
London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard that at the heart of the scheme was a 24-year-old woman who would be used to lure the victim.
Posing as a work-hungry secretary, she was supposed to get a job at the would-be victim's company then lure him from the safety of his office "to the slaughterhouse".
But the enterprise fell at the first hurdle when the apparently eager job applicant was told there were no vacancies.
Before they could come up with an alternative plan, Holland (68) and his four accomplices were arrested by armed police.
Holland was found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap Nasir Zahid.
So, too, was "sex lure" Khan Coombs (24), and lorry drivers Simon Young, (38), John McDonnell (45) and Gerrard Booth (47), of Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, Co Down.
Young, who earlier admitted possessing ammunition without a certificate, was also found guilty of having a revolver.
Remanding all five in custody, Judge Henry Blacksell adjourned sentence until May 2.
For Holland it will be his fourth major prison sentence in a long criminal career.
In 1981 he was jailed for seven years for an armed robbery at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Less than a decade later he was sentenced to 10 years for possessing explosives and detonators.
Then in 1997, not long after Dublin journalist Veronica Guerin was assassinated by a motorcycle pillion passenger, he was arrested for possession of 10kgs of cannabis resin. Holland, originally from Dublin, was jailed for 20 years. That was reduced on appeal, but after three years' remission he was released in April, 2006.
Interviewed shortly afterwards, Holland denied involvement in the shooting of 37-year-old Ms Guerin.
"I haven't killed anybody ever. There is no blood on my hands," he insisted.
Yesterday's verdicts followed a two-month trial featuring lengthy surveillance evidence as Holland met alleged paymaster, Patrick Van Cantfort, a wealthy European businessman nicknamed "The Banker" and currently being sought by police.
The court heard he ordered the kidnapping apparently believing Mr Zahid had double-crossed him.
Holland - who described himself as a "legal adviser" - was watched by police as Van Cantfort gave him cash for hotel rooms and vehicles needed for the conspiracy.
Christopher Kerr, prosecuting, said as the plan unfolded gang members "staked out" both the Isleworth, west London, home of target Mr Zahid, and his nearby business premises.
Mr Kerr told the court that while Holland was "in charge" of the "plan in the UK", McDonnell and Booth were to "carry out the snatch physically".