The High Court has ordered that photographs of the former equestrian centre owned by the wife of convicted drug dealer John Gilligan, should be taken to establish its condition for a court hearing next week on an application by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) for the appointment of a receiver to sell the property.
Cab obtained an order in 1996 freezing Gilligan's assets and is seeking to have a receiver appointed for Jessbrook Equestrian Centre in Enfield, Co Meath.
The bureau claims Jessbrook is in an overgrown and abandoned state.
It is owned by Geraldine Gilligan and Cab wants to appoint a receiver to sell it and other properties owned by Gilligan's son Darren and his daughter Tracey.
Mr Justice Kevin Feeney rejected an application by Paul Burns SC, for Mrs Gilligan, to dismiss the Cab application because, counsel argued, a Cab officer had unlawfully entered the equestrian centre and taken photographs.
Cab says the photos, taken in July and December last, show the property is in an abandoned state.
Ms Gilligan "strongly objected" to this description, counsel said, saying she had only received notice of Cab's claims about the property on January 16th after she had spent Christmas abroad.
She had not had time in which to address issues raised in an affidavit by the CAB officer who visited the premises as it was sent to her lawyers over the Christmas break.
Michael McDowell SC, for Cab, argued Ms Gilligan does not reside at Jessbrook and is in fact living in Alicante in Spain. The state of the property should not come as a surprise to her if she was living there, he said.
Mr McDowell said this was a civil case and there was no Constitutional prohibition on the use of evidence obtained by the CAB officer in the way he did.
Mr Justice Feeney declined to dismiss the case but he would not allow the affidavit of the Cab officer to be admitted in evidence. However, because the court required up-to-date evidence, the judge directed that legal representatives should attend Jessbrook, each with professional photographers, to take pictures of the property.
The judge adjourned the hearing to next Wednesday and said if no agreement can be reached between the parties about how attendance at Jessbrook should proceed tomorrow, they should then both attend at the equestrian centre at 11am on Monday.
Cab obtained a order in 2006 allowing it to seek disposal of Gilligan's properties under section 4 of the Proceeds of Crime Act. The current proceedings arise out of that order.
John Gilligan, who is serving a 20-year sentence for drug dealing was in court for today's application.