PSNI OFFICERS have carried out searches at an office of the Policing Board in Belfast and at the home of its chairman, Barry Gilligan.
The police, in a statement issued late last night, confirmed it had carried out a search at Policing Board headquarters at Clarendon Dock and at other addresses but would not confirm that the home of Barry Gilligan was among them.
“Searches have been conducted in Belfast as part of an investigation into matters concerning development land at Nelson Street. A number of items have been removed for examination from an office and a house,” the PSNI said in a statement. “Police inquiries are continuing.”
A PSNI spokeswoman would only confirm last night that the searches had taken place in connection with an ongoing investigation by its organised crime branch.
That investigation has been going on for the past five months, it is understood. “We will confirm we have searched a number of properties,” she said.
Big Picture Developments owns a site at Nelson Street and Mr Gilligan is one of its directors.
Mr Gilligan, a property developer from Co Fermanagh, has been chairman of the Policing Board which oversees the Police Service of Northern Ireland following the retirement of Sir Desmond Rea in May 2009. He has been on leave from the board since February this year because of illness and has undergone successful heart surgery.
Earlier this year the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which provides social housing, called in the police to investigate its role at the Nelson Street site. The Policing Board was established under the recommendations of the Patten commission, which called for the establishment of the PSNI. It comprises 18 members, nine of which are political representatives from the main political parties, including Sinn Féin, which joined the board in 2007.
The remainder of members are drawn from a cross-section of public life.