A PSNI officer is at the centre of a major Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) investigation in Northern Ireland, it was revealed tonight.
Joanne McKee, a uniformed constable, and her husband Samuel are to be questioned after 15 horses and a petrol station lease were seized in a new crackdown on alleged fuel smugglers.
Constable McKee from Rathfriland, Co Down, is well known in equestrian circles. The horses took part in jumping events and point-to-point races.
Assets estimated to be worth £750,000 belonging to the couple and a second man, Patrick Carr, also from Rathfriland, were frozen by the High Court in Belfast last week, but Ms McKee's job as a serving police officer was only confirmed tonight.
The ARA claimed that she had been connected to falsely obtaining tax credit, tax evasion, benefit fraud and holding property funded by her husband Samuel's alleged criminality.
The agency also claimed in court that he and Mr Carr were both involved in excise and tax evasion, fuel smuggling and money laundering. Mr Carr was also said to have been linked to false accounting.
It is understood Constable McKee was spoken to briefly by ARA officers last week. It is expected she, her husband and Mr Carr will be formally interviewed later.