Gardaí red-faced as €40,000 in evidence missing from station

EMBARRASSED gardaí have been put on the case of a mystery disappearance after over €40,000 in cash vanished from their own protective custody.

The cash was seized during a raid on a suspected drugs house several years ago and was kept as potential evidence for any prosecution that might result from the operation.

As time ticked by, however, and the person claiming to own the money faced no charges, he went to the District Court to make a standard application to have the property returned.

It was then that gardaí went looking for the cash, which was believed to be secure in a garda station safe, and discovered to their alarm that they could find no trace of it.

The garda station originally in charge of the raid and the evidence gathered during the operation is one of Dublin’s largest and busiest, Fitzgibbon Street on the northside of the city centre.

However, the money also spent time at the forensics unit in Phoenix Park headquarters where it underwent routine examination for fingerprints and traces of illegal substances.

It is not yet clear where the last confirmed sighting of the notes was or which unit had responsibility for it at the time. The disappearance has prompted a high-level investigation headed by a senior officer external to both stations.

Supt John Leahy of Fitzgibbon Street station said he could not comment on the details of the investigation. “There is an internal inquiry and the matter is also sub judice,” he said.

If the money is not recovered and the courts order its return to the original owner, it is expected it will have to be replaced from the public purse. The gardai can appeal such an order.

The affair led to calls from Labour justice spokesman Joe Costello for a full review of the facilities and procedures in place in garda stations for the storage of importance evidence.

“This is not a bicycle going astray: it is a huge sum of money. We do not know if the money was stolen or simply lost, but I think that members of the public will regard it as extraordinary that there are not watertight procedures for the secure storage of sums of money,” he said.

It is not the first time items have gone missing from Fitzgibbon Street. In August 2003, a firearm, flak jacket and a quantity of drugs being held as part of an investigation also disappeared.