THE president of the Law Society, Mr Andrew Smyth, has strong criticised the Garda's handling of a visit to the offices of a leading Dublin law firm, M. E. Hanahoc and Company, last month.
In a letter to the Garda Commissioner, Mr Smyth has condemned the alerting of the media to the visit. Photographers and journalists arrived at the firm's offices at the same time as the Garda team.
An internal Garda investigation is under way into the society's allegations that the media were "tipped off" that gardai with a warrant were due to call at the company's offices. Conveyancing files relating to property transactions of two of the company's clients were removed by gardai.
The visit was made by detectives from the new Criminal Assets Bureau which was set up as part of the Government's recent crime package aimed at targeting the assets of organised crime.
In an earlier press statement, the company described the incident as a "photo opportunity" set up by the Garda and said there was no necessity whatsoever for the Garda to apply for a search warrant with all the attendant publicity.
"The visit was solely in connection with property transactions by two named clients and was made on foot of a warrant issued under recent money laundering legislation. There was no mention in the warrant or by the gardai concerned of the very regrettable murder of Ms [Veronica] Guerin."
The statement stressed that the firm had acted in a "perfectly proper and professional way in relation to all the transactions concerned and we are very concerned about the implications that may be drawn from the manner in which this operation was carried out and the publicity which it inevitably attracted".
Meanwhile, in the editorial of this month's Law Society Gazette, Mr Smyth welcomed the moneylaundering legislation "despite the society's reservation about the proposed implementation of this legislation".