The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) yesterday took possession of two houses belonging to Thomas McDonnell in part settlement over income tax assessed from his earnings as a brothel keeper in Dublin since the late 1980s.
Officers from the CAB yesterday changed the locks on the properties at Lower Grattan Street, Dublin, and at Chester Road, Ranelagh. It is expected that they will fetch in excess of £760,000 when sold at auction.
The properties are being sold as part of a settlement with the CAB announced in Dublin Circuit Court yesterday, when McDonnell (47), from Cooraclare, Co Clare, pleaded guilty to six charges of failing to make tax returns and to making false returns.
McDonnell has been before the courts for over two years in respect of the tax charges.
In February 1999 the High Court heard that the CAB had secured a judgment against McDonnell for £1.75 million in unpaid income tax and interest. The sum was based on an assessment of alleged unpaid income tax and interest over a 10year period.
McDonnell had fought the claims up until yesterday when he pleaded guilty to the six charges.
In 1999, bureau gardai estimated that McDonnell was making up to £5,000 a week and had 12 prostitutes working for him.
He has five criminal convictions: the first was in 1975, for common assault; three subsequent convictions were for burglary and larceny; and in June 1991 he was convicted of making a living from immoral earnings. The court ordered him to pay £4,500 to the Well Woman Clinic.
At the Circuit Court yesterday counsel for McDonnell asked for an adjournment of the case until November and said that McDonnell had reached an arrangement with the CAB in respect of his liabilities.