Over €1m of assets linked to Kinahan gang member are proceeds of crime, court rules

The High Court has ruled that more than €1 million of assets linked to senior Kinahan organised crime gang member Ross Browning were obtained with the proceeds of crime.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens said the evidence justified the Criminal Assets Bureau’s (Cab’s) claims that the assets, seized in 2018 from Mr Browning and several members of his family, were fully or partially acquired either directly or indirectly out of the proceeds of crime.

The assets include a property in Garristown and lands in Rush, both in north Co Dublin; a house on Deanstown Road in Finglas and several vehicles, luxury watches and jewellery. The items were seized from Garristown and addresses in Dublin’s north inner city.

The judge said the evidence established “as a matter of probability that Ross Browning has had an ongoing and significant involvement in organised crime for a significant number of years and is a senior member of the Kinahan organised crime gang”.

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He said this gang is “involved in the importation, and distribution of drugs and firearms in Ireland” and that Mr Browning has associations with senior members. He and his partner, Sinead Mulhall, attended Daniel Kinahan’s wedding in Dubai in 2017 and Christopher Kinahan Jnr’s wedding in Spain in 2010, the judge said.

The bureau had sought orders under the 1996 Proceeds of Crime Act allowing it to freeze the assets. It claimed Mr Browning purchased a 1.3-hectare site in Garristown for €120,000 in 2013 on which he subsequently developed a residence, sheds, a sand riding area and stables.

Mr Browning, Ms Mulhall and their three children live in the complex, the bureau claimed. It also alleged that Mr Browning restored the cottage, called Chestnut Lodge, and the site for some €330,000.

Mr Browning did not contest the Cab’s application. However, members of his family rejected the claims about the assets.

His mother Julie Conway and her husband, a former garda, claimed an interest in the assets and contended they spent legitimate funds on the renovation of Chestnut Lodge where they reside. She also claimed ownership of two plots of land in Rush. She also alleged the bureau was not entitled to take possession of assets that allegedly form part of the estate of the late William Conway, Mr Browning’s grandfather.

Ms Conway claimed the property at Garristown was acquired in 2012 with €100,000 from Mr Conway after he sold a house at Deanstown Road for €120,000 to his grand-nephew, Ian O’Heaire. The late Mr Conway bought the house in Deanstown Road with money he claimed he received by way of compensation in 2008 and 2010, while it was also claimed that Mr O’Heaire acquired the property with compensation money he received in 2012.

Cab, represented by Benedict Ó Floinn SC, with Gráinne O’Neill BL, argued Mr Browning, a bricklayer who also operated a Dublin gym, had obtained assets by “intermingling money” that was the proceeds of crime with money belonging to members of his family.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Owens accepted that most of the assets sought by the Cab were acquired with money from Mr Browning and rejected most of the arguments put forward by Mr Browning’s relatives about the origin of the funds.

From the financial evidence put before the court, the judge was satisfied that between 2011 and 2017 Mr Browning and Ms Mulhall could not afford to buy and pay for the upkeep and training of a trotting horse, engage in property purchases, fund the renovation of houses, set up a gym business or pay out large sums of cash for cars. Their means at this time were “very modest”, he said.

In relation to claims made by Mr Browning’s family regarding the property and renovations at Garristown the lands in Rush, and the property at Deanstown, the judge said the evidence showed that Mr Browning was involved in acquiring all these properties.

The judge said nothing spent on the site in Garristown by Mr Browning came from any identifiable legitimate source of income. The site was bought in an arrangement to substitute legitimate income with the proceeds of crime, the judge said. That money was provided by relatives and was to be returned by Ross Browning in due course, he added. The only possible source of the money that funded that development was Mr Browning, the judge added.

The court accepted that Ms Conway and her husband did retain an interest in the cost of refurbishing Chestnut Lodge. The court said they spent up to €70,000 of their money on those works and the court directed that they receive a quarter of the net proceeds of sale of that part of the Garristown property.

The court was also disposed to make an order that the estate of Willam Conway be paid €59,000 out of the sale of Garristown.

It was also accepted by the court that Ian O’Heaire does retain some interest in the Deanstown Road property, so €103,000 should be paid to him out of any sale of that by the bureau. No interest will apply, the judge added.

Mr Justice Owens said he was reluctantly minded in imposing these exceptional provisions in order to ensure that there was no disproportionate enrichment of the State at the expense of Mr Browning’s relatives who would have lost out for “facilitating Ross Browning’s activities relating to those properties”.