A LIMERICK MAN who admitted laundering money for an international criminal enterprise behind so-called illegal ‘dodgy box’ streaming services, received a fully suspended two-year jail sentence.

Aidan Galvin, (53), Galvone Road, Kennedy Park, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to laundering €28,000, through his bank account, to criminals involved in a €750,000 illegal television streaming enterprise.

In mitigation, Galvin’s barrister, Joe McMahon BL, suggested at an earlier pre-sentencing hearing that Galvin was merely “facilitating” people watching television.

As well as the money-laundering offence, Galvin admitted dishonestly making a gain for himself or another, and two breaches of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000.

Sentencing judge Colin Daly described it as an “economic crime”.

The judge said that although Galvin played a “minor” role in the enterprise, he had “supported” the activities of organised international criminals.

The court heard gardaí received a tip off from the UK, which led them to identify Galvin as an Irish link for the crime enterprise.

The court heard that, on 5 March 2020, Sky Television was alerted to a chat group that contained a list of Sky Premium contracts via the encrypted cloud-based mobile messaging app Telegram.

Subsequent emails discovered by gardaí linked Galvin as being an Irish contact to the operation from 2015. It was heard that Galvin had also posted USB sticks and devices to the UK.

Gardaí conducted two test purchase sting operations through Galvin. In the first sting, gardaí exchanged €200 for an illegal streaming device, and in the second sting they exchanged €170 for a 12-month contract on another device.

Gardaí secured a warrant to freeze Galvin’s bank account, and subsequently discovered €28,000 was laundered through the account between 2018 and 2020. The bank account was empty when gardaí analysed it, and the exact amount for the sale of all devices could not be ascertained.

The devices were described as “Globe IPTV” devices.

Judge Daly said Galvin was an “agent” for a wider criminal enterprise in which money was wired between bank accounts.

He said Galvin knew the enterprise was illegal yet, he participated in it after he “fell on hard times” following being made redundant from his job.

Galvin was arrested and charged in January 2023; he was cooperative with the garda probe and he readily admitted his role.

The owners of the streaming content were at a financial loss and Galvin had enabled customers to illegally consume or watch the content, said the judge.

Galvin had three historic previous criminal convictions, but the court said these were not relevant.

The judge gave Galvin the benefit for entering early guilty pleas, cooperating with gardaí, that he was no longer involved, that he had taken steps to rehabilitate, that he was now in gainful employment and caring for a family member, and that he was not the principal operator but essentially a “money mule”.

The judge imposed headline sentences of three years reduced to two years for the money laundering offence and deception offence, to run concurrently.

The court also imposed 18-month sentences, reduced to 12-months, on each of the two remaining offences.

All the sentences were to run concurrently with one another and were suspended in full for a period of three years, on Galvin’s own bond of €100, and provided he does not reoffend within that period.