John Gilligan remanded in custody on money laundering charges

John Gilligan, who is facing charges of money laundering in Northern Ireland, has been remanded in custody for another week after a judge recused himself from the case.

Mr Gilligan appeared before Antrim Magistrate's Court via video link from Maghaberry prison, where he has been held since his arrest on August 23rd at Belfast's International Airport by officers from the National Crime Agency.

The 66-year-old, with an address at Greenfort Crescent in Dublin, is charged with attempting to remove more than €22,000 by way of criminal property from Northern Ireland, contrary to both the Criminal Attempts and Conspiracy Order, and the Proceeds of Crime Act.

District Judge Nigel Broderick on Tuesday said he could not deal with the case as in the past, as a partner in a firm of solicitors, he helped represent Mr Gilligan at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

Judge Broderick said he wanted to refer the matter back to Coleraine, but the District Judge in the North Antrim Court was currently on leave. He would need to “canvass” the other judge’s views and was therefore “minded to adjourn the matter for a week”.

Earlier, the prosecution had sought a four week adjournment, telling the court there was “a mobile phone to be examined and international lines of inquiry to be pursued”.

‘Firm instructions’

However, Jim McGinnis, for Mr Gilligan, objected to the lengthy adjournment, saying he had received “firm instructions to seek the shortest possible remand in this matter”.

“Mr Gilligan is 66 and he does not enjoy good health,” said Mr McGinnis, who added that since being taken into custody his client had been taken to hospital.

The solicitor also told the court of a 2014 attempt on Mr Gilligan’s life in which he was shot six times.

Coleraine court heard last month that Mr Gilligan claimed he was “under a sentence of death and had been ordered out of Ireland”, and that the seized cash had come from his family through the sale of property.

The court heard Mr Gilligan had readily volunteered that he was carrying the cash when questioned by members of the UK Border Force. A total of €22,280 was found in his luggage which was taken from a Spain-bound jet.

The District Court was also told that in the past Mr Gilligan had served 17 years of a 28-year sentence. However, his solicitor said Mr Gilligan had not “been in any bother” or come to the attention of gardaí since his release from prison.

He had recently “sold almost everything he has in the world in order to get the required funds to get out of Great Britain and make a fresh start in Spain”.