Courts

CAB receiver to take control of Dublin house ‘effectively owned’ by Daniel Kinahan

Property in Saggart is the first to be seized from wanted crime cartel boss

The house in Saggart is the first property that has been seized from Daniel Kinahan. Photograph: Collins Dublin.

Tue Nov 15 2022 - 13:34

The High Court has ordered that a Criminal Assets Bureau receiver take control of a west Dublin property “effectively owned” by international crime cartel boss Daniel Kinahan.

The house in Saggart is the first property that has been seized from the 45-year-old after it was found to be the proceeds of crime, namely drug-trafficking.

Mr Justice Michael MacGrath said on Tuesday he was satisfied to grant an application made by Shelley Horan BL on behalf of CAB that their legal officer be appointed receiver to sell the property “on the open market” and control €3,850 found there.

Ms Horan said her application was made under Section 7 of the Criminal Assets Bureau Act for the bureau’s legal officer, Kevin McMeel, to be appointed receiver.

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She said CAB planned to sell the house and lodge the proceeds to a nominated bank account. The barrister said the next step would be the forfeiture of any proceeds from the sale to the exchequer which could be done in seven years’ time.

Ms Horan said the property was a “substantial five-bed” house at Coldwater Lakes in Saggart, valued at about €800,000 in 2013.

She said that when gardaí called to the house on May 23rd, 2019, Anthony Fitzpatrick, a former MTK boxing manager and “close associate” of Daniel Kinahan, was living there with his family.

On October 25th, 2022, Mr Fitzpatrick told gardaí he had moved out of the house five months previously, that he no longer had the key to the house but did have a fob for various gates to get access to the premises. Ms Horan said that on the same date, CAB drove to the property and found it uninhabited. None of the respondents in the matter have claimed ownership or interest in the property. She said gardaí believed that there was no valid insurance on the property in place, should there be any damage to the property. Counsel added they had no means of validating whether there was one in place.

Ms Horan applied on behalf of the State to have the property sold on the “open market” and requested a stay be put on the receivership order until November 24th, 2022 so that logistical preparations could be made.

Ms Horan said the application was in the interests of all parties so that the asset could be protected.

Mr Justice MacGrath granted the application to allow Mr McMeel to take control of the house and cash.

The High Court previously heard it is alleged that Kinahan and Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh gave the now jailed businessman Jim Mansfield Junior (54) two suitcases containing €4.5 million, which was to be invested in property for the cartel. That deal collapsed when Mansfield’s finances suffered during the economic downturn but it is alleged that Mansfield Jnr later reached a deal with the cartel to repay them by giving them a house at Coldwater Lakes in Saggart. At a previous hearing in April, CAB said that Kinahan has “effectively owned” the property since 2014.

Last month, the court heard that Det Chief Supt Seamus Boland of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, outlined in an affidavit that Kinahan “sanctioned a number of murders” as part of the Hutch/Kinahan feud.

At that hearing, Mr Justice MacGrath deemed the house to be the proceeds of crime.

Ms Horan had said it was “noteworthy” that no one had come forward to claim ownership for such a “valuable property”, which she said was “very telling”.

“This is an attempted repayment of funds to the Kinahan Organised Crime Group that wasn’t properly effected,” she added.

CAB’s view, Ms Horan said, was that it was “highly improbable” that Daniel Kinahan would contest these proceedings “because that would involve him acknowledging an involvement in a property he has hitherto sought to conceal”.

The High Court heard in July that CAB officers had written to Kinahan at two separate business and residential addresses that are believed to be linked to him in Dubai but he had not responded.

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