Prisoner forfeits €11,450 to State

A cocaine addict serving a five-year sentence after being caught handing over €70,000 to a criminal colleague in May 2006 has forfeited €11,450 cash found on his person in separate incident earlier that year to the State.

Dean Burke (aged 38), of Ballyshannon Road, Kilmore West, was stopped and searched by gardaí on September 19, 2006. He told gardaí that he had €16,450 cash on his person from the sale of his car some time before.

Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court made an order on consent to forfeit €11,450 of the cash seized to the State.

Burke was jailed last June for five years by Judge Tony Hunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he was filmed on Clare Hall Shopping Centre’s CCTV security footage handing over cocaine valued some €70,000 to Keith Hyland (aged 33) on May 4, 2006.

Detective Garda Tom Barber told prosecuting counsel, Mr Remy Farrell BL, that a surveillance operation had been put in place by the National Drugs Unit at Clare Hall on the Malahide Road.

Burke, who has 42 previous convictions, at first denied even being in Clare Hall until faced with the CCTV evidence as well as mobile phone records linking him to Hyland and the cocaine.

Det. Garda Barber said Burke, formerly from Berryfield Road, Finglas was observed meeting Hyland whose car was stopped when he drove off and a green bag with the cocaine was found in it.

Hyland of East Road, Dublin 3 was jailed last July for five years by Judge Martin Nolan who heard a plea for leniency for him from former soccer international Martin Lawlor, who works as a health educator through his East Wall-based business The Life Centre.