A Co Cork chef arrested as part of a Garda investigation into IRA money laundering was granted bail of €30,000 by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday despite Garda objections that he was a "central individual" in an IRA money-laundering operation.
Mr Don Bullman (30), a chef and father-of-two, of Fernwood Crescent, Leghanamore, Wilton, Co Cork was charged last Friday with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on February 16th.
The court granted Mr Bullman bail on his own bond of €500 and an independent surety of €30,000. He was ordered to report daily to a local Garda station, to surrender his passport and not to travel outside Co Cork.
The court also ordered him not to associate with anyone convicted of subversive crime or to associate with four named people - Mr Conor McLaughlin, Mr Christopher McElhinney, Mr Tom Hanlon and Mr George Hegarty.
Mr Bullman's counsel, Ms Anne Rowland, said she was not in a position to take up the bail and the court remanded Mr Bullman until March 8th.
Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan, presiding, said that if the court refused bail it would be denying Mr Bullman the presumption of innocence.
Yesterday Det Supt Diarmuid O'Sullivan of the Special Detective Unit, objected to bail and said he believed Mr Bullman would interfere with evidence if granted bail.
He said Mr Bullman was stopped by gardaí in a Northern Ireland-registered jeep at Heuston Station in Dublin last Wednesday. There were two other men in the jeep and Mr Bullman was in the back seat and beside him was a blue holdall. In this was a plastic bag containing a Daz box and the box contained over €94,000. Supt O'Sullivan said Mr Bullman's fingerprints were found on the plastic bag containing the Daz box.
Supt O'Sullivan said Mr Bullman was "a central individual" to the activities of the IRA prior to February 16th and that activity was "a money-laundering operation for the IRA, in which he is central".
He said that six mobile phones were found in the jeep when Mr Bullman was arrested and Mr Bullman had two mobile phones. Gardaí examined text messages and found one message sent to Mr Bullman's phone on February 12th, which said: "Get me a rate for hundred. Make sure it's a good rate. If it's not good we'll walk away."
Cross examined by Ms Rowland, Supt O'Sullivan said that one of the people arrested with Mr Bullman had made a statement saying the money found in the jeep was his and he had taken it out of a bank in the North and was lodging it into another bank.
Supt O'Sullivan said Mr Bullman had told gardaí during questioning that he had been attending a catering trade fair at the RDS and he admitted that he had made an application there in the name "Jerry McCabe, catering officer, Garda Club". He admitted knowing that Garda Jerry McCabe had been shot in Adare and said he used his name as a joke, the superintendent said.
Mr Bullman, in evidence, said: "I am not a member of any unlawful organisation and never was."