Man who robbed church collection boxes in Cork to be sentenced for money-laundering

CCTV on accused's phone showed huge house in Romania where a large volume of notes and coins in multiple denominations were being counted on a kitchen table, court heard

In January 2021, accused was caught with an AIB bank card for an account in someone else’s name and in an examination of the account over the previous four years it was established that over €228,000 had passed through it. File picture: Larry Cummins

A 57-year-old man who used a wire hook to fish money out of church collection boxes was caught in a money-laundering investigation with live CCTV coverage from a huge house in Romania where a large volume of notes and coins in multiple denominations were being counted on a kitchen table.

The CCTV was on Chilimbar Vasile’s phone and it covered his own property in Romania where he also had three powerful cars, Detective Garda David Kelleher said at the sentencing hearing.