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A couple has been sentenced in the Special Criminal Court for laundering almost 500,000 euros through five bank accounts over five years for the organized crime group Kinahan.
Jonathan Harding, 48, of Kerdiff Avenue, Naas, Co Kildare, a convicted drug dealer and arms dealer for the gang, used two of his own bank accounts and three accounts belonging to his partner and the mother of his son.
Carol Davis, 45, of Clonmacnoise Road in Crumlin, also pleaded guilty to money laundering offenses, although the court heard that she did not know what Harding had been doing.
Harding was jailed for five years and three months, while Davis, a mother of two who cares for her elderly father and aunt, received a three-year suspended sentence.
The money laundering system was discovered due to an investigation into the gang’s drug and firearms operations.
Gardaí found revolvers, pistols, a submachine gun, an assault rifle, and ammunition in the gang’s weapons depot at Greenogue Business Park in Rathcoole in 2017.
Convicted con artist Jonathon Harding was sentenced to ten years in prison for possession of firearms.
However, Office of Drugs and Organized Crime officers who searched his home discovered financial documentation showing how much he and his partner Carol Davis had deposited over five years.
Between 2012 and 2016, more than € 470,000 was deposited into its five accounts, while more than € 422,000 was withdrawn.
€ 40,000 was spent on a mobile home, another € 52,000 on plane tickets: 100 flights in three years.
Both received income from work or social assistance but deposited more than 342,000 euros more than their legitimate income.
Carol Davis told gardaí that she believed Harding when he told her that he worked as a mobile mechanic and thought that the money that moved through his accounts was from his business.
“I didn’t know anything was criminal,” he said. “I just thought Jonathon was working.”
The court accepted that it was reckless in giving Harding access to its accounts.
Harding and Davis have been in a relationship since 2010 and have a daughter together.
The father of five accepted the responsibility of laundering money and using the accounts of his unwitting partner.
Almost € 200,000 that moved through Davis’s accounts was in cash.
Judge Tony Hunt said that organized crime gangs accumulate large sums of money that need proper financial management and that the human-provided money laundering services by Harding and Davis are essential.
He pointed out that the travel services linked to the particular accounts had been used for organized crime purposes.
Harding was sentenced to six years and nine months with a year and a half suspended, while Davis received a suspended sentence of three years.
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