Documents may be linked to IRA money laundering

BRITISH police and gardaí are still examining documents seized during raids in the Manchester area, which may be connected to alleged IRA money laundering.

The investigation is focussing on two Manchester businessmen, Paul Dermot Craven and Brian Gerard Pepper, whose homes and business premises were raided as part of an investigation into 250 properties in the region worth £30 million (€43.6m) which may be owned by the IRA.

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) in Northern Ireland is probing the assets of Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, alleged to be the IRA chief of staff. The inquiries are civil and not criminal.

Michael Kenyon, a solicitor acting on behalf of Mr Craven's firm, confirmed the Craven Group is assisting the ARA in its ongoing inquiries.

Mr Kenyon said: "We wish to emphasise that this is a civil inquiry and that no wrongdoing is suggested against the group or any of its staff. As far as the group is concerned it's business as usual."

The ARA was created in 2002 as a way of allowing cash obtained through unlawful activity to be clawed back. Investigators yesterday targeted The Craven Group, a Sale-based property firm.

Mr Craven is company director of The Craven Group and Dermot Craven Development Limited.

Records at Companies House show both firms are based at the same address Craven House, Britannia Road, Sale. Mr Pepper is a director of Dermot Craven Developments Limited.

The pair hold 25 company appointments between them in a range of property-based firms.

Craven House was raided, as well as the Craven Group's shop in School Road, Sale. Investigators were also at Mr Craven's seven-bedroom, £850,000 (€1.2m) mansion in South Downs Road, Hale, and Mr Pepper's home in The Waterside, Bridgewater Street, Sale. It is understood a large number of documents were taken during the raids.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has sought to head off a row by emphasising the ARA's independence.

"Let everybody be crystal clear about this, in Northern Ireland or anywhere else, that if you acquire assets, if you acquire resources illegally by criminal means then every effort will be made by the agency and the security forces to track down those assets," he said.

A Sinn Féin MP last night insisted there was nothing to connect Thomas 'Slab' Murphy to the 250 properties in Manchester.

Newry and Armagh MP, Conor Murphy, said his constituent Mr Murphy was being unfairly accused of being involved in criminal activity.

"I read the statement from the Assets Recovery Agency which is quite vague and bland and doesn't refer to any republican at all, much less Mr Murphy," the MP said.

"What we have is the Assets Recovery Agency issuing a statement about what they are doing and then an element or individuals within the Assets Recovery Agency who have a Special Branch background giving selective and private briefings to try and point the finger at different people."