THE MAN convicted of killing the Slane Castle game keeper nearly 20 years ago yesterday lost his battle to have more than €171,000 cash seized by gardaí returned to him.
The 18 bundles of cash were taken when gardaí raided the Drogheda home of Michael Hodgins (38) in 2005 where they also found cocaine and amphetamines.
The money was in a locked briefcase hidden underneath the bath in his Pearse Park home when gardaí searched it on April 15th, 2005.
In Dundalk Circuit Court yesterday Garda Sgt Tom Quinn said some of the bundles were wrapped in layers of brown tape and were practically “waterproof” and “I firmly believe it’s the proceeds of drug dealing.”
However, Hodgins claimed it was money he had saved from working as a bricklayer and doorman since he was released from prison in 1998 having served his sentence for the manslaughter of Timothy Kidman. He had been jailed for 12 years in 1990.
He told the Judge Michael White: “I was released from prison in April 1998 and walked on to a building site and was employed until I was arrested.”
He said he had made the money from “nixers”, and although he told people he was paying his own tax, “I wasn’t.”
After he was sentenced to nine years for drug dealing by Dundalk Circuit Court in 2006 he began to try and have the cash returned to him.
He made an application for it under the Police Property Act but lost his case in the District Court and appealed it to the Circuit Court in Dundalk where it was heard yesterday.
The court was told there were 16 bundles of €10,000, one bundle of €5,000 and another of €6,500 – totalling €171,500.
In giving his decision Judge White said, excluding the €30,000 from a Mr Shane O’Brien, who told the court he had given it to Mr Hodgins to renovate a house, it was said that €141,500 was accumulated from his work as a doorman and a bricklayer.
“I don’t find that credible, that that sum could be accumulated and left in such a way.” He said the claim he was hiding it from the taxman and “hid it in a briefcase” was not credible. “The scale of evidence tips towards it being the proceeds of crime and proceeds of drug dealing,” he added.
He found the €141,500 was the proceeds of crime and must be forfeited to the State. Regarding the money claimed by Shane O’Brien, he ordered it to be held until a later date so the State can investigate the matter.