Judge confiscates money found in car door

A man who claimed that €20,000 found in a garda search resulted from the sale of a car, has had the money confiscated and forfeited to the State as the proceeds of crime.

Michael Cronin (aged 35), of Belclare Lawns, Ballymun told gardaí he had just sold his car to a named car dealer in Swords but the firm’s owner denied any such transaction had taken place.

Mr Sean Gillane BL, for the Revenue Commissioners, told Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that garda acting on confidential information in relation to drug trafficking stopped a vehicle on the M50 northbound in Finglas in which Cronin was a passenger

The cash was found in the passenger’s door and neither Cronin nor the driver admitted owning it.

Mr Gillane said noth men were arrested and Cronin later told gardaí that he owned the money having just sold his own car but gardaí later learned that the named dealer had not bought a car from him.

Judge Delahunt said she was satisfied that the money was the proceeds of crime and directed that the €20,000 be forfeit to the State.