Monk: Fortune from property deals, not crime

ONE of Ireland’s most famous criminals, Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch has claimed he did not make his fortune from any involvement in two of the biggest robberies in the history of the State, but from shrewd property investments.

It was put to the Monk in his first-ever television interview last night that he had accumulated his wealth at around the same time as IR£4 million was stolen from a Securicor van at Marino Mart in 1987 and Clonshaugh in 1995.

Later the Belfast High Court found that Stg£75,000 in his Northern Bank account was from the Marino Robbery and gave it back to Securicor.

Gerry Hutch, who is a millionaire, said: “The money in my bank account was not out of the Securicor robbery.

“I did not do the robbery and I was not laundering money.

“What can I say? If everyone believes I done it, hands up, I didn’t do them. That’s all I can say.

“I done a lot of business in property, it was a good time and that’s where I made me money. If people say armed robberies, so be it. I mean I was questioned about these armed robberies you are talking about so, we’ll let them decide, the people.”

The Monk admitted he was a man of influence in the community and that he had committed crimes, some of which he had got away with.

“Oh yes [I am] a convicted criminal, yes I know that, but not a convicted armed robber, not a convicted hit man you know, no, no convicted drug dealer no, I’m not,” he said.

He said the reason the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) reached a £1.2m settlement with him was because of tax evasion.

However, in the same programme, Chief Superintendent John O’Mahoney, head of CAB, said: “There are people out there who would have you believe that a certificate of tax clearance meant that people were innocent of criminality. A certificate of tax clearance is just that — it is not a certificate of innocence. We tax the proceeds of crime.”