A Cork man who was arrested during the Garda investigation into a money laundering operation involving the proceeds of the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast has been jailed for IRA membership.
The Special Criminal Court in Dublin convicted Tom Hanlon (43), a father of four from Pembroke Row, Passage West, Co Cork of IRA membership on February 16th, 2005 and imposed a sentence of three years and three months. He had denied the charge.
Convicting Hanlon, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that the court was satisfied that he was “intimately involved in highly suspicious financial transactions involving monies which have been proved to have included proceeds from the bank robbery in Belfast”.
The court was told that at least £26 million sterling was stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast in December 2004.
But, the judge added, Hanlon had not been charged with a money laundering offence and did not have the opportunity to defend himself against such an accusation in court.
Mr Justice Butler said that the court accepted the belief of Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Quilter that Hanlon was an IRA member on February 16th, 2005 and that belief had been corroborated by Hanlon’s failure to answer material questions during his questioning by gardai.
The court heard that Cork chef Don Bullman, who was caught in possession of €94,000 in a washing powder box, had been jailed for four years in 2007 for IRA membership on the same date as Hanlon.
Mr Justice Butler said the court had to be consistent and was taking nine months off the four year sentence for Hanlon because he was not prosecuted until recently even though the evidence against him was available at the same time as the evidence against Bullman in 2007.
During the five day trial, the court heard evidence from Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Quilter that he believed on the basis of confidential information that Tom Hanlon was an IRA member in February, 2005.
The court also heard that gardaí found a Sinn Féin chequebook, photocopies of “joke” Northern Bank notes with images of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, two cheques for the so called Colombia Three campaign and other documents in Hanlon’s bedroom.
Gardaí carried out searches in the Cork area in February, 2005 and found £2.4 million sterling in seven bags in a locked cupboard in a house owned by financial adviser Ted Cunningham.
DNA samples taken from Hanlon matched DNA taken from the zip handle of one of the money bags.