The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) is to sell a house valued at around €1 million at Cowper Downs, Rathmines, Dublin, which was bought more than 20 years ago by the late Martin Cahill, the Dublin gangland boss known as the General. Cahill was murdered in nearby Ranelagh in 1994.
After certain deductions, including the payment of €175,000 to solicitors for Cahill's wife, her sister and her son, the proceeds of the sale of the Cowper Downs house are to go to the State. The property was bought in 1984 for £80,000 in cash.
Meanwhile, under the terms of an agreement announced to the High Court yesterday, the Cab has withdrawn applications to seize two other properties which had been owned by Cahill - a three-storey terraced house at Swan Grove, off Mountpleasant Place, Ranelagh, and an unoccupied derelict store and yard at Dolphin's Barn, Dublin.
Proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act were brought by the Cab against Frances Cahill, widow of Cahill; her sister, Patricia Lawless; and against Martin Anthony Cahill, son of Frances and Martin Cahill.
In the proceedings, the Cab was seeking to have the properties "frozen" under section 3 of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Yesterday, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, was asked by Paul O'Higgins SC, for the Cab, to make a consent order in the proceedings. Under the consent order, the Cab withdrew its application in relation to the Swan Grove and Dolphin's Barn properties while the defendants consented to an order providing for the sale of the Cowper Downs house.
A legal officer with the Cab is to be appointed receiver, from May 1st next, over the Cowper Downs property and the defendants are to ensure vacant possession by then, leaving all fixtures and fittings in place.
The parties have agreed that the receiver will proceed to sell the Cowper Downs property either by public auction or private treaty, as he might be advised. The defendants are to co-operate fully with the sale.
It is also agreed that the receiver will deal with the proceeds of sale by discharging all expenses and professional fees attaching to the sale, and that €175,000 from the proceeds of sale will be paid by the receiver to solicitors on behalf of the defendants. The defendants also consented to a disposal order transferring the balance held by the receiver to the Minister for Finance for the benefit of the Central Fund. There is to be no order on costs as the defendants had been granted legal aid.
In an affidavit presented to the court, Det Chief Supt Felix McKenna said he believed the properties which were the subject of the court application were in fact purchased by money generated by Cahill and from proceeds of various crimes carried out by him in association with others directly or indirectly. Cahill was murdered on August 18th, 1994.
He believed Cahill was involved in criminal activity from a very early age and continued that activity right up to the date of his death, Det Chief Supt McKenna said.
From his own knowledge and from Garda information, he could say that from the early 1970s, Cahill was leader of a criminal gang.
There was a core number of about six in the gang.
They regularly also involved other criminals in different crimes, Det Chief Supt McKenna said.
Cahill and his gang specialised in armed robberies and aggravated burglaries where they regularly falsely imprisoned victims.