SUSPICIOUS cash lodgments totalling more than £1 million a month are being reported to the Garda fraud squad by banks and building societies.
Under money-laundering legislation deposit-taking institutions are obliged to alert the authorities to any large sums which they consider suspicious. In 1994 the money-laundering division of the Garda National bureau of Fraud investigation was sent 199 reports of suspicious lodgnents, worth £17.7 million. So far this year 86 reports have been filed, for sums totalling £3.5 million.
Action in three cases had been initiated by the Director of Public Prosecutions, who sought restraint orders from the courts. Two of the cases have since been dropped, but in the third an order was granted relating to the assets of a family in Dublin linked to the illegal drugs trade.
At the formal opening of new offices for the fraud squad in Dublin yesterday the Garda Commissioner, Mr Patrick Culligan, said the force had given a new priority fraud investigation.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, said people should not see fraud as "the soft edge of crime". While its victims did not suffer in the same way as victims of street crime they could suffer psychological damage as a result of fraud.
After cutting a ribbon the Minister toured the offices, speaking to gardai at their desks. The Garda Federation said later there had been a protest at the event by its members, who had returned to their desks because a representative of the rival Garda Representative Association was at the ceremony.