A BROTHEL keeper has lost ownership of a Limerick apartment after the High Court ruled it was acquired by money obtained through criminal activity.
Ms Justice Carmel Stewart found in favour of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) who argued that Aulicete Walsh and her son Maicon Morelli, who was the registered property owner, used the proceeds of crime to purchase the apartment.
The judge ordered that CAB were to seize the property.
Ms Walsh, a Brazilian-born national with an address in Clarina, was said to have “put a great deal of effort into continually flouting the law and engaging in brothel keeping”.
The 55-year-old was previously convicted in 2015 and 2017 of brothel keeping and given an eight month prison sentence and in 2012 she was fined at a County Limerick Court for a similar offence.
In the application, it was argued that Ms Walsh had engaged in a lifestyle where relatively new cars and holidays were purchased through the proceeds of crime.
The court found that brothel-keeping was a business model that took advantage of vulnerable young women to make a profit.
The Limerick apartment was purchased with a €34,000 bank draft but the mother and son argued that €20,000 of the purchase money came from legitimate income. Ms Walsh also claimed that she invested €10,000 into the apartment.
Ms Walsh’s son claimed he was given the money by his late father in Brazil and that he was never involved in any serious criminality.
Ms Justice Stewart dismissed the claims and said the mother and son failed to convince the court otherwise.
