THE CRIMINAL Assets Bureau (Cab) has secured a Supreme Court order allowing it to take possession of and sell a family home that the courts previously ruled was purchased with the proceeds of crime.
A man whom the bureau alleged was involved in significant crime relating to unlawful drugs lives in the property with his wife and a number of children.
Some €26,000 is to be paid to the man’s wife and father, the registered owner of the property, with all other money arising from the sale to go to the exchequer.
The three-judge Supreme Court, in making the order yesterday, directed that nothing may be published to identify the parties affected by the order. Ms Justice Susan Denham said the prohibition on publicity was to protect the children who were living in the property. The court has ruled the occupants must vacate it by June 30th, after which the property will be sold by the bureau.
The man’s wife is entitled to remove specified items and, when vacant possession is delivered up, must be paid €6,348 immediately by the bureau for her interest in the property, the court ordered.
It also directed, when the property was sold, that €20,000 should be paid to the man’s father with the remainder of the proceeds of sale to go to the exchequer. The bureau had previously secured orders that the property represented the proceeds of crime and that a receiver be appointed over it.