Bureau fails to explain bank file delay

The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has declined to give an explanation for a lengthy delay in passing on vital bank documents that led to the quashing of Mr George Redmond's conviction on corruption charges and his release from prison.

The delay in passing on financial records that secured Mr Redmond's release meant the 80-year-old former assistant Dublin city and county manager spent five months longer in jail than he needed to.

A spokesman for the Garda Press Office said the CAB had "no intention" of answering questions on the matter. His response came after repeated inquiries from The Irish Times over the past two months. CAB also declined to say why the records were not available during Mr Redmond's trial last year. The Flood/Mahon tribunal has had this information since 2000.

Last November, Mr Redmond was found guilty of accepting a bribe from Mr Brendan Fassnidge in relation to the granting of a right-of-way from Mr Fassnidge's garage in Palmerstown. In December, he was sentenced to one year in jail.

However, the conviction was quashed last July after the defence produced Mr Fassnidge's bank statements during an appeal. Mr Fassnidge had claimed that he withdrew £10,000 from Bank of Ireland, Blanchardstown, to bribe Mr Redmond, but his statements showed there was no such withdrawal.

During the trial, it emerged that although CAB had obtained the statements in February, they were not passed on to Mr Redmond's legal team until late June. Had they been available earlier, Mr Redmond would have been released earlier from Cloverhill prison. A former manager of the Blanchardstown bank, Mr Paul Sheeran, told the trial he inspected Mr Fassnidge's files in the branch. This appeared to contradict other evidence that the records did not exist.

A spokeswoman for Bank of Ireland told The Irish Times they had provided CAB detectives with "all the records that were asked for". In January, after Mr Redmond was jailed, his solicitor Mr Anthony Harris wrote to the DPP asking him to obtain the files mentioned by Mr Sheeran.

Unbeknownst to Mr Redmond's legal team, CAB detectives obtained the files in February. They were not passed on to his legal team at this stage.

With the appeal set for hearing in July, Mr Harris wrote to the DPP again in late June, asking if the documents had been found. Within a few days, the DPP obtained the records from CAB and sent them on to Mr Harris.

Questions have also arisen in relation to the non-availability of Mr Fassnidge's financial records during Mr Redmond's original trial last year. While these were not produced during the trial, they appear to have been in the possession of the Flood/Mahon tribunal for the past four years.