Cab seizes €500,000 in two cases

The Criminal Assets Bureau has seized more than €500,000 in property and cash in two separate cases involving a criminal gang and a Chinese brothelkeeper.

On the direction of the High Court, CAB has seized a house in Newbridge, Co Kildare, and other items from Andrew Wall, a member of the Traveller criminal family known as the "Cock Wall" gang, and his wife Ellen.

Cab claims gang allegedly travels the country committing robberies and burglaries, mostly involving elderly victims.

Mr Justice Kevin Feeney last week declared the home, valued at €240,000, other property and cash to be the proceeds of crime. The items included an 18 carat diamond ring worth €6,100; the proceeds of the sale of a 2003 Volkswagen car; and cash sums of €10,900, IR£559, and Stg£1,180.

CAB officers, in a search of the house in 2007, also found a receipt for €8,000 for cosmetic surgery on Ellen Wall's nose and she said she spent €10,000 on a watch.

The Walls had available to them nearly €500,000 in funds from unknown sources between 1995 and 2007, the court heard.

A forensic accountant for Cab identified more than €400,000 passed through their bank accounts between 2002 and 2007 when they had no known sources of income, the judge noted. This occurred when Mr Wall was in prison for a considerable period while Mrs Wall was in receipt of social welfare until 2004.

Cab officers claimed in court that a man who sold the house to the Walls was duped out of €100,000 in an alleged under-the-counter deal. It was claimed the vendor agreed a deal with Mr Wall under which he would officially be paid €140,000 for the house but Mr Wall would also pay over an additional €100,000 in cash. Cab claimed that additional €100,000 was never handed over.

However, the judge said he attached no weight to this testimony. Without evidence from the vendor whom Cab alleged was too afraid to go looking for the disappeared €100,000, it was hearsay evidence, he said.

Mr Wall, who has 11 previous convictions, was released from prison in 2004 after serving six years for the manslaughter of John Mc Carthy (35) at a halting site in Tallaght in 1996.

Shortly after Mr Wall's release, he was convicted of handling €14,500 worth of jewellery stolen in a burglary in December 2004, the judge said. This demonstrated his willingness to be involved in and with the proceeds of crime, he added.

In a separate High Court judgment, Mr Justice Feeney approved a settlement of €243,000 from Junxiu Hua, a convicted brothel keeper known as 'Tina' who ran a brothel in Thomas Street in Dublin and sent the profits to China.

In three-and-a-half years she sent more than €1m (10m yuan) home.