Kerry man caught at Covid checkpoint with €97k cash spared jail for money-laundering  

Judge says she hopes convicted man appreciates the significant chance he is being given

Gardaí at a checkpoint in cork stopped a man who was found to carrying a large sum of cash.

A Kerry man, who was caught at a Covid checkpoint in Ovens, Co Cork, with over €97,000 in cash stashed under the passenger seat of his car, has been given a fully suspended jail term for money-laundering.

Martin Aherne of Ballyseedy, Tralee, Co Kerry, pleaded guilty to the money-laundering offence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Elva Duffy gave him a suspended two-year sentence.

It related to March 21 last year at Barnagore, Ovens, Co Cork, where he was caught handling €97,580 cash, being reckless as to whether or not it was the proceeds of criminal conduct.

Garda Ryan Dillon testified there was a garda checkpoint in the Ovens area on that day in accordance with public policy on Covid restrictions.

“Gardaí noticed certain issues with his driving licence and his nervous disposition. They also detected a smell of cannabis from the car.

“When informed he was going to be searched he said that there was a large quantity of cash under the front passenger seat and that this was the proceeds of the sale of drugs,” Garda Dillon said.

The stash of money was removed together with a mobile phone. Aherne said he had been instructed to take the mobile phone and insert a SIM card into it.

Fulsome admissions

“When interviewed he made fulsome admissions,” Garda Dillon said.

He had a limited number of previous convictions including one count for having drugs for his own use and public order convictions arising out of one incident in 2018.

Gardaí only took issue with one aspect of the defendant’s account of his actions which he gave to the probation service. Gardaí were sceptical about the idea that he only became involved in this crime to clear a drug debt as this view was never put forward by the accused to the gardaí at interview.

However, Garda Dillon accepted everything else in the report and that the accused was not coming to any adverse attention of gardaí since. He is also in employment.

Judge Elva Duffy said the question she had to address was whether the offence merited an immediate custodial sentence.

The judge said it was a very large sum of cash and that there was evidence of some planning with the directions being given on a particular mobile phone. In mitigation there was the defendant’s cooperation and the fact “he has learned a very valuable lesson” and was now assessed at being a moderate risk of offending.

“I will impose a sentence of two years. Bearing in mind the significant efforts at rehabilitation I am going to suspend that in full… He is being given a significant chance – I hope he appreciates that,” Judge Duffy said.