An elderly couple, their daughter and her husband were jailed yesterday at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for counting more than £1.5 million in drugs money for the John Gilligan gang. Judge Dominic Lynch sentenced Yvette and Patrick Warren (both 69) to 18 months' jail; Nicola Cummins (26) for 12 months and Brian Cummins (26) for eight months.
The court previously heard they were hired to count large bags of cash by Russell Warren, described as an "accounts clerk" for the Gilligan gang. He has been given a five-year jail term for money laundering and is under the witness protection programme.
Judge Lynch said the Warren parents were the more serious offenders in this operation but they all "provided a link in the chain of distribution of illegal drugs". He added: "If they had not provided this service it would have been financially pointless for the supplier".
The operation began two days after journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered and ended when gardai raided their home in September 1996. They were paid £50 and £25 for each counting session and claimed they had saved up to £600 each in a credit union. The Warrens pleaded guilty to handling money they knew was the proceeds of drug trafficking or other crimes, at their home in Heatherview Lane, Tallaght.
Cummins, of Clonfert Road, Crumlin, pleaded guilty to handling over £10,000 to another man on behalf of the Gilligan gang.
Judge Lynch refused an application for leave to appeal sentence made by Mr Luan S. Braonain (with Mr Paul O'Higgins SC), defending. The maximum prison sentence the Warrens had faced for the offence was one of 14 years.
Patrick Warren told gardai that Russell claimed the money was for cigarettes and tobacco. Later he realised the money was for Mr Gilligan, after he became suspicious that the counting was going on for too long and he never saw any cigarettes.
He said his son would ask them to count one or two plastic bags he would leave on the stairs and return in a couple of hours when they had finished counting.
He said he would bring bundles of money into the house twice weekly. Two yellow covered note pads were kept in the refrigerator containing the values of money counted. No other records of counts were made and a scanner found in his house was Russell's, he said. Patrick Warren said he was married for 49 years and never spent a night apart from his wife. "I am disgusted he got me and my wife in this position," he told gardai.
Yvette Warren said she didn't know where her son collected the money but knew it was from different men. She said they must have counted millions of pounds in the house and said she had counted £70,000£100,000 a week.
She said Russell indicated that people were getting shot if anything was said. She had asked her son if he had anything to do with shooting and he replied, "no". Nicola Warren claimed she didn't get paid a penny, "not even presents", for counting the money and said Russell had promised her something big for her wedding.
Weekly sessions were held when Russell brought money to the house in sports bags. She asked him where the money came from and he would tell her what she didn't know wouldn't harm her. She thought it was drugs money. Det Garda John Poole said gardai found £56,505 and £7,500 in sterling in the raid on the Warrens' home. Det Garda Poole told an earlier hearing that none of the four had previous convictions and had initially thought the money was from selling tobacco.
Det Garda Poole said two other people in the drugs distribution network had been jailed. Charles Bowden, a distributor, got six years and was under a witness protection programme, and John Dunne, who worked in a shipping agency and imported the drugs, received three years.