Kinahan bagman stalls CAB seizing home saying he can't get quantity surveyor
Patrick Lawlor and his wife Leonie are contesting the CAB case against them in which their house on Collins Avenue West in Dublin is being targeted.
Patrick was one of three men jailed for seven years in October 2022 following an investigation by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau into a major transnational organised crime gang which took in more than €12m in 2019 and spent €98,000 on encrypted phones in the same year.
It was run by George Mitchell, the Dublin criminal known as 'the Penguin' who left the country over 25 years ago and was since targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau, who took almost three quarters of a million euro from him.
At a previous High Court hearing, Ms Lawlor told the court she is still living in the family home and had filed affidavits in response to the CAB proceedings against her and her husband to seize the family home.
Ms Lawlor also told the court then that her three children are grown up but she is still living in the family home and continues to pay the mortgage from legitimate income. They purchased the house in 2007. However, the CAB case centred on income generated between 2010 and 2020. 18/12/2024 - This house is on Collins Avenue West is currently owned by convicted money launderer Patrick Lawlor and his wife Leonie. (Image: Padraig O'Reilly)
Judge Alexander Owens said that there is substantial value embedded in the home that is not the proceeds of crime. Last month the couple were granted legal aid for a junior counsel and a solicitor.
At this week's sitting of the High Court, defence counsel for Lawlors' said they have not yet retained 'an expert witness,' and there is 'no agreement as yet.' The expert witness is a quantity surveyor to survey the property.
'They are still engaged with firms and I am suggesting an October date to allow them to engage an expert witness,' counsel said.
Counsel for CAB said they are seeking a date in September to reply to the defendants' affidavits and requested the case be put into an October date for mention. Agreeing with the October date, Mr Justice Alexander Owens remarked: 'We need to get on with it.' 13/02/2025 - This is Leonie Lawlor photographed at her home at Collins Avenue West (Image: Padraig O'Reilly)
None of the details of CAB's case against the couple have been opened in court.
During the sentencing hearing in October 2022 for Lawlor and a taxi driver, Ross Hanway from Ashbourne, Co Meath, who was jailed for four years, Dublin Circuit Court heard that the transactions were lodged in ledgers kept by Patrick Lawlor.
Lawlor received monthly cash payments of €5,000 while Hanway was initially paid €1,250, which rose to €4,000 by 2019. The court heard the men were only involved in money laundering and not in drugs.
Hanway of The Beeches, Archerstown Demense, Ashbourne, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to possessing €412,000 on May 26, 2020, which was the proceeds of crime while Lawlor of Collins Avenue West, Whitehall, Dublin 9 pleaded guilty to possessing €412,000 on May 26, 2020 which was the proceeds of crime.
Lawlor also pleaded guilty to possession of €477,370 in cash, £6,920 Sterling, 1,940 Romanian Lei (approximately €400), 187 Ukrainian Hryvnia Lei (approximately €5) and $3,295 US Dollars. Lawlor further pleaded guilty to possession of an encrypted mobile phone.
Judge Melanie Greally said 'it does not take any leap of imagination to infer' that money seized by gardaí had originated from serious criminal activity. She said both Hanway and Lawlor Sr received financial rewards for their roles in the money laundering operation.
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