The prosecution of a Co Clare man in the UK on charges arising from an alleged £100 million sterling VAT carousel fraud may encounter difficulties following a High Court decision yesterday.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, struck down warrants used in November 2002 to search Mr Dylan Creaven's home in Ennis and other premises, during which large amounts of documents were seized. The judge held the UK authorities had failed to adhere to the correct procedures when seeking the warrants.
The documents seized under the warrants were sent from here to the UK and it is believed the UK authorities had intended to use these in the prosecution of Mr Creaven and of other persons.
Following yesterday's decision, lawyers for Mr Creaven are expected to apply to the High Court next week for the return of the documents from the UK.
Mr Creaven, who was arrested in London on November 19th, 2002, is on bail awaiting trial on charges in connection with the alleged fraud. No trial date has yet been set.
In earlier court hearings, it was claimed the extent of the alleged fraud was over £100 million sterling and that it involved high-value computer components and the alleged movements of these goods in a circle between various companies to generate VAT payments that had not been declared to the English authorities.
Mr Creaven and his companies have denied the claims.
In judicial review proceedings, Mr Creaven and two of his companies, Silicon Technologies (Europe) Limited and Bradenville Holdings Limited, had challenged two sets of search warrants issued the day prior to his arrest in London.
The challenge related to five search warrants issued by District Court Judge David Anderson on November 18th, 2002, under Section 55 of the Criminal Justice Act 1994.
Those warrants authorised searches of Mr Creaven's home at Woodstock View, Ennis, the premises of three companies, including Silicon Technologies (Europe) Ltd, and the premises of an accountant. He also challenged seven search warrants, also issued on November 18th, 2002, by Judge Anderson, under Section 14 of the Criminal Assets Bureau Act, 1996.
Those warrants related to Mr Creaven's home, the Silicon premises and premises of another company, homes of company employees and the offices of an accountant and solicitor.
In his reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Finnegan struck down the five Section 55 warrants but upheld the validity of the seven Section 14 warrants issued to CAB. In relation to the Section 55 warrants, he said the relevant law provided that an essential precondition to an application for a warrant being made was the issuing by the Minister for Justice here of a direction in response to a request received by him from the government of the requesting country.
In this case, the letter of request was sent directly by the UK Customs and Excise authorities to the Department of Justice here.
However, the law required that the letter of request be sent to the UK Home Office for onward transmission to the Department of Justice.
Having carefully considered the affidavits as to foreign law, Mr Justice Finnegan said he was satisfied the request was not made in accordance with the law of England and Wales. It followed that no valid request was received by the Minister for Justice and accordingly the warrants were bad.
Mr Justice Finnegan said he would adjourn to next week the matter of what orders he would make arising from the judgment.
