A “MID-TO-HIGH LEVEL” international gang member appealing the length of his jail sentence for “industrial scale” money laundering of crime cash has also applied to get his Mercedes Benz back from the State, the Court of Appeal heard today.
Thomas Rooney (53) had his Mercedes S350, worth around €50K, forfeited to the State by an order from the Special Criminal Court and is seeking its return while also appealing the length of his six-year sentence for money laundering.
Rooney, of Betaghstown, Bettystown, Co Meath, was sentenced in January last year after he pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to offences under Section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing) Act 2010.
He was found to be in possession of €289,770 and £65,025 (€77,000) in crime cash in a blue Nike hold-all at Spar car park, Donore Road, Drogheda on May 11, 2020.
Rooney, who was described at sentencing as a “mid-to-high level” member of a transnational crime group, also pleaded guilty to possessing €254,840 in a black hold-all also at Donore Road and to possessing €7,650 at North Road, Drogheda, on the same date. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with the final 12 months suspended.
Gardai also seized the black Mercedes S350 that the Special Criminal Court heard was in possession of Rooney’s chauffeur service company, EBT Executive Travel Ltd.
The court heard that the defendant had admitted counting €7,650 in crime cash from an envelope in the vehicle and had also sent co-ordinating texts from a phone plugged into the car.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt noted that Rooney used the car to transport the cash in what was an “industrial scale money laundering” operation.
Mr Justice Hunt previously remarked that Rooney would have been better off using a “cheap banger off done deal” rather than the “high-end” Mercedes in question.
At the Court of Appeal today, John D Fitzgerald SC, for Rooney, in applying for the car’s return, told the court that while the car was used in the money laundering operation its use was “tangential”.
Fitzgerald said the car was not used in the money laundering offences, “save to transport Rooney to and from the scene”.
Counsel said no larger amounts of money, which were held in two bags on the day, were found in the Mercedes but that around €7K had been found in an envelope that was thrown into the car by co-accused Jason Reed.
Reed, a “trusted, high level” member of the same gang was caught with more than €350K of the cash, and was jailed for seven years.
Fitzgerald said Reed, who was jailed by the Special Criminal Court in July 2021, was the focus of the Garda investigation on the day and had been put under surveillance, unlike his client.
Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly questioned the “tangential use” of the car when Rooney was caught in it counting the money, of which €1,200 was his share in the operation. Ms Justice Donnelly said Rooney had used the car to receive his amount of the proceeds of crime.
Fitzgerald said his client had ownership of the vehicle through his company and that Rooney had gotten into financial difficulty regarding his chauffeur business at the start of the Covid lockdown in 2020 and began using it himself.
Ms Justice Donnelly asked Fitzgerald if it was the appellant’s case that the forfeiture of the vehicle was “disproportionate”, relative to the amount of money contained in the envelope in the car and was told “yes”.
Fitzgerald said Rooney had worked hard all of his life in a number of businesses and had “little” involvement in criminality. He said his client was going to have to re-establish himself at the end of his jail term and that the car was an “integral item” of his past and possible future business.
Garret Baker SC, for the State, said the car was used in facilitating the operation regarding the proceeds of crime upwards of €600K.
Baker said that Rooney had made admissions to gardaí that he “thought he was being clever” in moving money between cars and that the gang moved in convoy in different cars on the day.
Baker added that the car was used in a “multi-vehicle” operation co-ordinated by Rooney who was involved in a joint criminal enterprise with others, including his former partner, Catherine Dawson, who received a suspended sentence for her role in moving the money.
Counsel said that the forfeiture of the car was a “punitive measure designed to hurt criminals in their pockets” and that criminals have to be aware that the courts have a “suite of tools” available to them that can be deployed.
Baker submitted that the forfeiture was appropriate, “given the serious nature of the offences”.
Regarding Rooney’s sentence appeal, Fitzgerald said his client was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment while the main focus of the Garda investigation, Reed, received seven years’ jail time.
Fitzgerald said that Reed had pleaded not guilty, made no admissions, had more involvement in the operation and was of a “higher level of value”.
He added that both Reed and Rooney had been given a headline sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment before mitigation but that his client’s guilty plea and early admissions saw Rooney receive just one year’s less jail-time than Reed, which amounted to a “disparity”.
Counsel said Rooney, who appeared in the court with a respiratory oxygen tank, had breathing and lung difficulties throughout his life and that prison would be more difficult for his client than for others.
Fitzgerald said the personal and medical circumstances of Rooney and Reid were “very different” and that this was “not adequately taken into account” at sentencing.
Baker said that Rooney’s six-year sentence was “sound and had to be available” to the sentencing judge regarding an admitted joint enterprise for an international criminal organisation, of which he was a “trusted, mid-to-high level member”.
Baker said Rooney was “broadly in the same bracket” as Reed, and that Rooney was the “directing man on the ground”.
Counsel said Rooney had nine previous convictions, which included criminal damage and public order, but still enjoyed an overall 40 per cent discount from his headline sentence, leaving less than half the maximum sentence of 14 years to be served.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, presiding, said the three-judge, non-jury court would reserve judgement in the matter.
In July of 2021, Reed (41) of Maelduin, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to possession of the cash in the blue Nike bag on the same date and location but also pleaded guilty possessing crime cash at his home address after gardaí found €32,330 and £441 there, despite Reed having no source of income.
In May of 2021, Rooney’s then partner, Catherine Dawson (46), of Betaghstown, Co Meath, and with whom he has two children, was given a fully suspended sentence by the Special Criminal Court for her role in moving the money.
Dawson also admitted to possession of the contents of the Nike bag at the car park at Donore Road.
A carer who used a company car as a cover for transporting the money, she was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison but it was suspended on condition she be of good behaviour for five years.
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