Ennis hitman trial: Supposed target's credit limit was 'checked'

Someone checked the credit limit on a Clare man’s American Express card from Ireland, while his partner and the Las Vegas poker dealer she is accused of conspiring with to kill him and his two sons were both out of the country, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Ms Sharon Collins (aged 45), with an address at Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road and Mr Essam Eid (aged 52), an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address Ennis have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1 2006 and September 26. Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to kill the three men.

Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from Mr Robert Howard to cancel the contracts. He also denies breaking into the Howard family business at Westgate Business Park and stealing two computers, some computer cables, a digital clock and a poster of old Irish money and then handling the stolen items.

Garda Annette Ryan told Mr Michael Bowman BL, counsel for Ms Collins, that two calls had been made to American Express Card Services on September 22 2006 from the offices of Downes & Howard, the property investment business run by Mr Howard and his sons.

Garda Ryan confirmed that two calls had been made at lunchtime on that day. Earlier in the trial Mr Paul Shingles, an investigator with American Express, told the jury that an unknown person called the helpline on September 22 2006 and asked for the credit limit but hung up when they were asked for Mr Howard’s mother’s maiden name.

The jury have also heard that on September 19, two flights to Ireland on US airlines were charged to the card in the names of Essam Eid and one of his wives, Teresa Engle. A hotel booking with Alpha Reservations was made on the same date.

Garda Ryan told Ms Ni Raifeartaigh that phone records showed over seventy phone calls between phones related to Ms Collins and those registered to Mr Eid.

She said that location of the calls from Ms Collins’ phones and the individual phones used in the case of mobile phones, corresponded to her movements between Ireland and Spain, where Mr Howard owns an apartment.

A total of seven calls were made from a phone registered to Mr Eid to the mobile belonging to Brian Buckley, an Irish soldier who gave evidence earlier in the trial that he had contacted the website Hitmanforhire.us. Private Buckley told the jury he had thought the website was a joke but had second thoughts when he was contacted by a man calling himself Tony who asked for “strong poison” to do a job in Ireland.

Garda Ryan said she had not investigated American numbers dialled from the landline in Ballybeg house, where Ms Collins lived with Mr Howard, because they were not related to the gardaí investigation.

Mr Bowman pointed out that these calls had been made while Ms Collins was in Spain.

Detective Garda Brendan Rouine told Mr Paul O’Higgins SC, defending Ms Collins, in cross examination that he had taken as accurate a record of Ms Collins’ garda interviews as he could.

“We keep writing and keep it as accurate as we can. We don’t have the facility of a stenographer and no shorthand.”

He told Mr O’Higgins that he had not recorded a complaint by Ms Collins that her words were not being recorded accurately because he was concerned with accurately recording the questions put to her.

He said that Ms Collins had been read over the statement and asked to sign them if she agreed they were a fair representation of what had been said. She had signed most of the statements.

Mr O’Higgins said it was impossible for the jury to watch the video recordings of the interviews since an earlier attempt to show one in court had encountered technical problems.

Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, replied that the defence had not previously complained about the recordings and he was willing to show them in their entirety if it was necessary.

Detective garda Rouine also agreed he had not recorded a comment from Ms Collins that her arrest had been unnecessary as she had been willing to attend the garda station on her own.

“It was a garda investigation not a Sharon Collins. It was up to us to decide the procedure and that’s what happened.”

The trial will continue on Monday before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and the jury of eight men and four women.