Gang faces assets seizure for scams on elderly
A near 18-month investigation in to the Killarney-based gang is almost complete and five settled Travellers centrally involved in the scam could also face criminal prosecution.
Six homes in Killarney were raided late last year as part of the investigation, conducted by local gardaí backed up by CAB officers.
The investigation into the gang was ordered at the highest level after numerous complaints from elderly people living across the south west, in Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary.
The gang approached elderly people and offered to carry out work on their homes, such as laying tarmac, clearing gutters or repairing roofs.
However, they demanded cash up front and even pressured elderly people by driving them to their bank and forcing them to hand over large amounts of cash.
Work carried out by the gang was extremely shoddy or non-existent, it is claimed. Tens of thousands of euro is said to have been handed over.
The CAB has identified assets belonging to those involved in the alleged scams. The five targeted are all reported to be living in private houses in Killarney.
Gardaí in Kerry hope to bring criminal charges against members of the gang, in tandem with the CAB investigation.
It is reported that two of the five are brothers and that the other may be related to each other.
In October last year, six houses were searched in the Killarney area. Some documents relating to business activities were seized and, in one case, a farmhouse and outbuildings were searched.
No arrests were made during the swoops, which followed allegations that people were conned by tradesmen carrying out work on their homes in the Cork, Kerry and Limerick areas.
The raids were carried out 12 months after an investigation first began in to the activities of what gardaí described as “rogue traders”.
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