THE CRIMINAL ASSETS Bureau has taken possession of a large house in Kerry as part of an investigation into a gang that carries out bogus home repairs.
CAB secured the large property at Upper Ballycasheen, Killarney, Co Kerry this morning on foot of a court order.
The house is owned by a local man, who was named in High Court proceedings and has been the focus of Operation Tarmac since 2016.
Operation Tarmac has focused on a gang that preys on vulnerable people to carry out bogus home repairs that they do not need. The High Court heard that almost €4 million has been made by the gang.
Sources have said that the gang’s activities were not just in Ireland but across mainland Europe.
“This is a big win for CAB, they’ve been on this case for a number of years and went this morning to secure the property,” a source said.
“This gang has caused heartache to a lot of particularly elderly people. Their crimes are centred around shoddy tarmac laying in driveways and also to do with the fitting of faulty guttering – ultimately it is all scams they run.
“The view is that this will dismantle the gang and deliver a serious blow to their activities,” they said.
In 2017, 130 gardaí were involved in a massive search operation of multiple properties across County Kerry as part of Operation Tarmac.
During those searches they took possession of a fleet of nine cars including five BMWs, two Volkswagen Passats, one Audi and one Mercedes, as well as ten Rolex watches, one Cartier timepiece and one Dolce and Gabanna watch. A Louis Vuitton bag was also seized.
The CAB detectives took control of four bank and Credit Union accounts which they were able to prove were the proceeds of crime. This amounted to funds totaling €177,104.
Wads of cash were found in the 2017 search which amounted to €126,605 and £6,935.
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