TWO BROTHERS facing charges of conspiracy to commit theft have had their application for legal aid refused by Judge Frank O’Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Alan (35) and Wayne Bradley (30) both bought new BMW X5s months after being charged with the offence and they collectively owe €362,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties as assessed by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Alan Bradley of Churchfields, Kenstown, Co Meath, and Wayne Bradley of Ratoath Road, Finglas, Dublin, are facing trial next year on the charge of conspiracy to commit a crime, relating to the €2 million theft at Tesco, Shackleton Road, Celbridge, on November 2nd, 2007.
Defence counsel for both men claimed that they did not have the “means” to pay a legal team for their upcoming trial, which is expected to last six weeks, and said if refused legal aid they would be forced to defend themselves.
Judge O’Donnell said that “obvious questions jump out” from both applications and that he was “totally in the dark” as to how the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) could make such demands of both men, based on the details of their income that were presented to him.
“There must have been other income not disclosed to me,” he said. He said that Alan Bradley had a “decided reluctance on his part to answer any questions a court needs to know”.
“His response in relation to the purchase of his BMW of ‘surely I can’t be expected to stop living’ was extraordinary,” the judge said. He added that there were also “huge questions” in relation to the BMW X5 “gifted” to Wayne Bradley and there was “a touch of “Tír na nÓg” around the unidentified person who gave it to him.
He said that Wayne Bradley was receiving “huge money altogether” in stud fees compared to the €4,500 he paid for his three horses and that he provided no documentation to back this up.
Judge O’Donnell heard at an earlier hearing that Alan Bradley, a former horse dealer, owed €180,000 following Cab judgments, while Wayne owed €182,000.
Alan had a share in a Spanish property with three others along with his family home, while Wayne owned two Dublin properties. Both their defence counsels submitted that the houses were now in negative equity due to the current economic climate.
The court heard that Wayne, a former car dealer, paid €4,500 for three stallions and earns €2,000 per month in stud fees. His partner gets €1,300 per month as a home help.
Alan, who the judge was told “doesn’t use banks”, earns €1,600 per month and his wife is in receipt of social welfare payments in the form of disability allowance and for acting as her father’s carer.
Alan told Sean Guerin, prosecuting, that he had been a part-time horse breeder but that three of his stallions had been stolen just before his arrest.
He confirmed that he received €21,168 in a personal injury claim three months after he was charged with the offence and then paid €10,400 off a €73,000 car loan for the BMW his wife had purchased earlier that month.