The lawyer representing a businessman whose assets were frozen yesterday by the UK's Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) has denied his client has been involved in criminality.
This follows the seizure of £11.8 million (€17.97 million) of assets in the Manchester area, the largest action taken to date by the ARA, which is the UK equivalent of the Criminal Assets Bureau in the Republic.
The agency alleges that 77 properties, mostly residential, in the greater Manchester area have been funded by the proceeds of financial crime and used to launder money. The property portfolio, with an equity value of about £4.7 million, consists largely of tenanted flats and houses owned and operated by property companies in Manchester.
The agency told the High Court in London yesterday it believed businessmen Paul Dermot Craven and Brian Pepper established the portfolio through the proceeds of unlawful conduct, including money laundering, tax evasion, false accounting, mortgage fraud and benefit fraud.
Yesterday's actions follow the freezing of £1.5 million (€2.28 million) in property assets last November.
The Irish Times understands that case was referred to the ARA by the Metropolitan Police in London following investigation by the force's Anti-Terrorist Squad.
It is further understood that alleged IRA leader Thomas "Slab" Murphy's farm on the Louth-Armagh border was searched as part of this investigation.
The court actions also follow a highly publicised search operation in Manchester in October 2005 which resulted in more than 350,000 pieces of evidence being taken for further examination.
Mr Craven has always protested he has no connection with any republican activity.
His solicitor, Michael Kenyon, criticised the ARA, which is due to be merged with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). "As far as we are concerned these are just the death throes of a failing agency which is earmarked for closure," he said yesterday.
Jane Earl, UK director of the Assets Recovery Agency, said: "This is the latest stage in one of the largest and most complex investigations the agency has undertaken."
The agency has served property freezing orders on Dermot Craven Developments Ltd, based in Sale, Manchester, and company directors Brian Pepper of Bridgewater Street, Sale, Manchester, and Dawn Craven.
Orders have also been made against Avenue Holdings Ltd, Craven House, also in Sale, and company directors Paul Dermot Craven, Brian Pepper and Gerald Joseph Nightingale.
Also included in the orders is DC&BP (2004) Ltd, Craven House, Sale, and company directors Dermot Craven and Brian Pepper. However, the ARA has not alleged any criminal conduct by Dawn Craven or Gerald Joseph Nightingale but has frozen property held by them, or by companies of which they are directors, because it alleges the property is the proceeds of crime.
Northern political representatives and the PSNI chief constable, Sir Hugh Orde, have expressed alarm at the proposed merger of the ARA and SOCA, despite British government assurances that the combination of agencies will enhance the fight against organised crime.