The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) was ordered by the Supreme Court yesterday to destroy all copies except one of documents seized from Mr Dylan Creaven who is on bail in England on charges in connection with an alleged £100 million VAT "carousel" fraud.
The court made an order that original documents taken from Mr Creaven's home, office and the offices of an accountant and a solicitor be handed back to their rightful owners.
Copy documents belonging to Mr Creaven's English solicitors are to be handed back, and remaining copies and extracts, including those prepared by the UK customs, are to be destroyed.
The order arose out of a Supreme Court decision last month around the making of District Court orders to issue search warrants in connection with Mr Creaven's prosecution.
Because the District judge who issued the warrants was sitting in Dublin and not in the three districts which included the premises to be searched, the Supreme Court overturned 11 of the 12 warrants issued to CAB.
As the warrants were invalidly issued, the court directed that all documents seized - many of which the UK authorities had hoped to use in criminal proceedings - be returned to their owners and not to CAB.
The legal proceedings arose after the arrest of Mr Creaven in London in November 2002. He is now on bail on charges in connection with the alleged VAT fraud.
The alleged fraud, it is claimed, involved high-value computer components, and the alleged movement of those goods in a circle between various companies to generate VAT payments that were not declared to the UK authorities.
Mr Creaven and his companies have denied the claims. The case against him is due for hearing in April.
The court yesterday awarded costs to Mr Creaven.