Andrew Carey
AN APPLICATION to have almost a quarter of a million of euro in cash forfeit to the State will be heard by a Circuit Court judge this week as gardai claim the money originated from the proceeds of crime and is not the winnings of professional Limerick poker player.
Submitting papers to the court last week before Judge Carroll Moran, State solicitor Michael Murray said that he was seeking a hearing date before the court and applying to have over €244,000 forfeit to the State.
In April 2010, 33-year-old professional poker player Paul Carr with an address at Vartry Avenue, Raheen but originally from Moyross, won over €300,000 in a Paddy Power poker tournament in Dublin.
A year later, €36,000 in cash was seized from a house that Gardai had searched on foot of a section 26 drugs warrant. The house in the Old Cratloe Road area of Limerick owned by the girlfriend of Jason Ahern, an associate of Carr’s, had been under Garda surveillance for some time.
A brown paper bag containing cash was found in a wardrobe of an upstairs bedroom and Mr Ahern said he had been given the money by Carr for safekeeping as he didn’t have a bank account.
Last year, a court ruled that the money was deemed to be from the proceeds of crime and it was subsequently forfeit.
A second seizure was made by gardai at a routine traffic stop in Ballysimon in 2012, when they found over €240,000 in cash in a Dunnes Stores bag in the footwell of a car. Carr also claimed ownership of this money but since then, it has been subject of a seizure order while an investigation continued.
This week, the State will now look to keep that money alleging that it is from the proceeds of crime.
