1 week Ago By [email protected] (Nicola Donnelly)
The Criminal Assets Bureau case against a Kinahan cartel target and his partner over their luxury two-storey family home that has been deemed ‘overwhelmingly’ derived from the proceeds of crime is expected to be finalised next month. This comes as James ‘Mago’ Gately’s partner Charlene Lam has filed an affidavit to explain how mortgage payments have been made from April 2019 to now “to see whether they came from the proceeds of crime.” At the High Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Alexander Owens was informed Ms Lam has filed an affidavit as requested.
READ MORE: Kinahan target James 'Mago' Gately to be stripped of home, car and Rolex watch in CAB battle defeat READ MORE: James 'Mago' Gately tied to three murders in CAB battle over Coolock home Counsel for the CAB has now requested time to file a responding affidavit, which the judge granted and adjourned the case to November when it is expected to be finalised for a receiver to be appointed for the home in Dublin’s Coolock. Earlier, in June, Mr Justice Owens ruled the luxury house “is overwhelming derived from the proceeds of crime and made an order that when the house is seized and sold, €6,500 can be deducted and given back to Mr Gately and Ms Lam as it was part of a Personal Injuries claim they used to pay some of the mortgage. The court earlier heard both Mr Gately and Ms Lam “lived an exotic lifestyle” and “essentially the proceeds of crime substituted their lifestyle”.
The judge said the property on Glin Drive in Coolock, Dublin 17 was “refurbished to a very high standard with a big extension at the rear'' which was previously described in a CAB affidavit as the ‘size of a two storey apartment,’ and “on the balance of probability it constituted the proceeds of crime.” The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) brought the case against Gately and Ms Lam to permanently seize their assets which include their two-storey family home which the CAB say they spent €440k on an extension and extensive renovations to the existing home. The CAB also wanted to seize a VW Golf TSI and a ladies Rolex watch worth €4,400 - which the bureau claims are all derived from proceeds of crime.
A receiver was appointed in June to take possession of these items. In a sworn affidavit a CAB officer alleges Gately “is a leading and prominent member of the Hutch Organised Crime Gang involved in armed robberies and the importation of controlled drugs.” The court previously heard both respondents are “hotly contesting” the application by CAB to seize the assets.
At an earlier hearing, the court heard a surveyor for the CAB and a surveyor for Gately and Lam both agreed the value of the works were in the region of €440k. However, this is in dispute by Gately who claimed his late dad and his pals completed all the works for free and he got a discount on materials. Mr Justice Owens, in his judgement delivered in June at the High Court, said he concluded that from 2013 to 2019 the couple’s entire lifestyle was substituted by the proceeds of crime.
He said the couple lived “an exotic lifestyle and they were virtually never in the State and were virtually in terminals of airports,” referring to the bureau’s claim the couple had indulged in “eye-watering” luxury holidays including cruises to Korea, Japan and China. Other trips included one to Barcelona and one to Lisbon in 2021. The judge also slammed the couple for “dragged out the case unnecessarily longer” than it should have been and “never put anything in on time.
” “They had endless opportunities to file affidavits and dragged the case on unnecessarily long. They never put anything in on time and they spun it out two years longer than it should have been,” the judge said. In June the judge said an application to take possession of the family home “can wait” until the couple file an affidavit to show where the mortgage repayments from April 2019 to now came from and adjourned the case until November.
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