A woman described as living an “exotic” lifestyle has lost her appeal over the appointment of a Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) receiver to her family home on the basis it was purchased with the proceeds of crime.
The three-judge Court of Appeal said Mary Cash had offered “no convincing explanation” for the source of the funds used to buy her home at Harpur’s Lane, Portlaoise.
The bureau had made out a prima facie case to support its claims over the purchase of the house and the High Court had correctly placed the onus of proof on Ms Cash to controvert that on the balance of probabilities, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan said.
The High Court found a “singular lack of engagement” by her with the Cab evidence and her excuses to be “totally unpersuasive”, he said.
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In a judgment with which Mr Justice Donald Binchy and Ms Justice Nuala Butler agreed, Mr Justice Noonan ruled there was no error in the High Court approach and the appeal must fail. He also awarded costs to Shelly Horan SC, for Cab, against Ms Cash.
The decision, given shortly after the conclusion of the appeal hearing on Thursday, clears the way for Cab to seek orders for the sale of the Co Laois home of Ms Cash (32), nee Kiely, a mother of three young children.
The court was told by barrister Adrian O’Higgins, for Ms Cash, that she will resist any such application.
[ Woman’s Co Laois home was purchased and renovated with crime proceeds, CAB claimsOpens in new window ]
In proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act, Cab alleged Ms Cash’s home was purchased mortgage free in 2018 with proceeds derived from burglaries allegedly carried out by her husband, Andrew Cash, and her brother, Henry Kiely, neither of whom was subject to the Cab proceedings.
Ms Cash has described herself as a lone parent separated from her husband but that is disputed by Cab, the appeal court noted.
Last July, Cab got High Court orders declaring her home and other property including a Volkswagen Golf car, jewellery and handbags, represented, directly or indirectly, the proceeds of crime.
Ms Cash’s appeal against the High Court order related only to the finding that her home represented directly or indirectly the proceeds of crime.
In denying that claim, she argued her home was bought with monies earned from her work as a cleaner, childminder and escort while she was in Australia with her husband in 2015.
The Court of Appeal said Cab had provided “uncontroverted” evidence that the monies from Australia, after transfer to accounts in Ireland, were dissipated mainly in small amounts via discretionary spending by October 2017, 13 months before the Portlaoise house was purchased.
Cab claimed the house purchase was funded by a large volume of lodgements between August and October 2018 when the account balance was some €100,000.
After the High Court’s Mr Justice Alexander Owens found Ms Cash’s “half explanations” for the origin of the funds used to purchase the house and the luxury goods “simply did not hold water”, he found, on the balance of probabilities, the home and other assets represented the direct or indirect proceeds of crime and made orders freezing them.
He had earlier made similar orders in respect of three cash seizures, totalling €27,000, on account of Ms Cash pleading guilty at Kilkenny Circuit Court last year to related charges of money laundering for which she received a suspended sentence.
The judge said the Cash family led an “exotic lifestyle” involving a lot of discretionary spending and there was “not a scratch of information” to explain how she came to afford through lawful earnings so many handbags and “various items of bling”.
Nor was there any real explanation for how they came up with some €100,000 to purchase their home and the subsequent sums spent renovating it, he said.
Ms Horan had argued there was no known legitimate income to support the couple’s “very lavish lifestyle”.
Ms Cash has received €140,000 in means-tested social welfare payments, there was no record of her being employed and unexplained lodgements totalling €397,000 were made into one of her bank accounts between 2015 and 2019, she said.
Mr O’Higgins said Ms Cash used cash daily, which is not illegal. She traded in horses, caravans and other goods from a young age and accepted tax liabilities in relation to them, he added.
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