A FINANCIAL adviser charged with money-laundering told a car dealer to whom he had given £200,000 (€223,000) to get rid of whatever cash he had left in his possession after the car dealer told him that he was having difficulty exchanging it, a court heard yesterday.
Dan Joe Guerin, who ran a car dealership in Ballincollig and had a garage in Millstreet, told how he had got £200,000 from Ted Cunningham in January 2005 in repayment for a loan that he had given Ted Cunningham for his friend, David O’Sullivan.
Mr Guerin explained that Mr Cunningham had asked for a loan of €120,000 to enable Mr O’Sullivan buy a share in a sand and gravel pit in Shinrone, Co Offaly in December 2002 and that he would get back €132,000 some 12 months later.
Mr Guerin told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that he gave Mr Cunningham €80,000 in cash and a bank draft for €40,000 in the offices of Mr Cunningham’s company, Chesterton Finance, at a meeting attended by Mr Cunningham and Mr O’Sullivan.
He said he looked for his money in December 2003 and in September or October 2004 Mr Cunningham asked if he would accept sterling.
“At that stage, I would have taken anything,” said Mr Guerin who confirmed that he got £200,000 from Mr Cunningham some time in the middle of January 2005.
He said he asked Ted Cunningham about changing the money and Mr Cunningham said that Tom Hanlon, whom the court had previously heard was a former Sinn Féin councillor in Passage, would change money for him so he met Mr Hanlon and gave him £75,000 in cash.
Mr Guerin said in early February 2005 after he gave the £75,000 to Mr Hanlon, he told Mr Cunningham he was having difficulty changing the cash and Mr Cunningham told him to “get rid of the remainder of it”.
Mr Cunningham denies 20 charges of money laundering.
The hearing continues.