The criminal Assets Bureau suspects Dubliner Mr Gerry Hutch is the leader of a criminal gang and it is investigating the whereabouts of more than £4 million which it suspects are the proceeds of his criminal activities, the High Court was told yesterday.
The CAB is trying to trace monies which it believed were stolen by Mr Hutch and put in bank accounts. Among the incidents it is investigating are a £1.7 million robbery at Marino and a £3 million robbery at Clonshaugh in Dublin.
A CAB officer was replying to Mr Hutch's application for a court order directing the CAB to return the deeds of certain Dublin properties.
Mr Hutch, of The Paddocks, Haddon Park, Clontarf, says he requires the deeds in order to fund his defence to legal proceedings in which CAB is seeking judgment against him for almost £2 million, following an assessment for alleged unpaid income tax and interest.
Mr Justice O'Higgins yesterday refused Mr Hutch's application.
Earlier, in an affidavit, the CAB officer said that the CAB had in the past two years issued orders to perhaps 20 to 30 Irish financial institutions seeking information about Mr Hutch's assets.
It was also investigating the robbery of an armed security van in Marino in January 1997, when £1.7 million in cash was stolen. In the armed robbery of a security depot at Clonshaugh, Dublin in January 1996, in excess of £3 million was taken.
The CAB suspected that Mr Hutch was the leader of the gang, that there were four other "core" people, and others who were used to hide the money, including partners, wives and children.
The CAB officer said the bureau hoped the end result would be to get to the "pot of gold hidden away in properties and bank accounts".
Mr Hutch's claim that he had no monies available to him and required to sell certain properties to pay legal fees was untrue, the witness said.
Mr Hutch had over the years sought to hide and disguise monies and properties in his control, including placing them in the names of other persons and in offshore accounts.
Mr Hutch was, for example, dealing with Halifax International Jersey Ltd, of St Helier, Jersey, the officer said. He had presented himself as P. Fowler (his wife's name was Patricia Fowler) at United Parcel Service (UPS) in Glasnevin on March 20th, 1996 and dispatched an envelope to the Jersey bank.
Mr Hutch also had had a beneficial interest with others in a commercial development in Drury Street, Dublin, the CAB officer said, adding that the bureau could show Mr Hutch investing £130,000 using monies he had hidden in his wife's name in TSB Northern Ireland.
For Mr Hutch, Dr Michael Forde SC said the CAB had been in possession of property belonging to his client and members of his family for over two years. This property had not been the subject matter of any order and no criminal proceedings had been instituted in relation to the documentation seized.
The CAB had seized the title deeds of these properties and Mr Hutch was asking the court to direct that these deeds be returned to him. Four properties at Lower Buckingham Street were involved.
Two of the houses were in the name of Mr Hutch's late mother, another was in the name of his sister, Margaret, and the fourth in his wife's name.
Dr Forde said his client claimed that these properties were readily sourced through legitimate financing, much of which came from settlements in various personal injuries actions. These included £8,250 from Securicor Ireland in June 1991; £2,000 from the Sun- day Tribune and sums of £1,000 and £25,000 in claims against the State.
Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for the CAB, asked if the court had jurisdiction to hear the application by Mr Hutch. There had been no attempt until last week by Mr Hutch to suggest there was any infirmity in the order seizing the deeds of his properties.
If Mr Hutch was dissatisfied, the way was to bring judicial review proceedings.