Cab target and alleged burglary gang driver given four months to leave home she claims she bought by working as escort

A woman described as a driver for a burglary gang has until September to leave the house she claimed she funded by working in Australia as an escort and cleaner.

The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) was given the power to sell off Mary Cash’s semi-detached house but have to wait until September to take full possession.

There were fears that the house in Portlaoise is currently uninsured and Cab applied for a receiver to be appointed to take control of the property, the High Court heard today.

The court heard the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) has a “significant concern” that Mary Cash’s home is uninsured.

The Cab’s barrister, Shelley Horan, said it would be difficult for Ms Cash to secure cover for the Harpur’s Lane property given the High Court and Court of Appeal have found it was purchased with crime proceeds.

Barrister Adrian O’Higgins, representing Ms Cash, said his client lives in the home with her three young children, two of whom are in primary school. Bureau officers have inspected the property at various stages and there has been no sign of damage. He submitted that there is “no evidence” of any danger to the property.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens noted the only entity with an “insurable interest” is the Cab

He said he has “a lot of sympathy” for Ms Cash and her family and noted they will probably want to find a new home in the same area as the children’s schools. After asking when primary school holidays occur, he gave them until August 31st to sort out their affairs. He said that failure to vacate by that date would be contempt of a court order.

The judge made an order permitting a bureau-nominated receiver to take possession of the home on September 2nd with the power of sale.

Cab had made the case that Mary Cash’s husband, Andrew Cash, and her brother Henry Kiely are gang members “heavily involved” in burglaries “throughout the island of Ireland”. Neither was subject to the Cab proceedings.

Ms Cash lost recently an appeal against the ruling that allows Cab to start the process to sell the property.

A search of the Portlaoise home in 2019 revealed a secret compartment over the fireplace in the bedroom in which £6,000 (€7,000) was found inside two socks.

Officers also found €700 and Stg£900 in a handbag in the front bedroom along with a gold Cartier Santos Galbee watch worth €2,000, a Chanel N’Quartz watch worth €900 and two diamond bracelets worth €4,200.

Also included in the Cab case were five designer handbags worth between €900 and €4,000 each, along with a 171-reg VW Golf.

In a second search in March 2020, images of Mary Cash leading “a lavish lifestyle” were found on her mobile phone, including one taken while shopping in Harrods.

When the case was first heard last year, Ms Cash said she had earned €100,000 to buy the house after working as an escort in Australia as well as child minding and working as a cleaner.

In his affidavit to the High Court, CAB chief officer, Michael Gubbins, said Mary Cash is believed to be the driver or to provide cars for members of the gang related to her.

Her bank account saw €429,000 pass through over 10 years and she didn’t explain the source of the cash when interviewed by officers.

The three-judge Court of Appeal in January held she offered “no convincing explanation” for the source of the money used to buy the home.

It was previously revealed that Cash also got a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence at Kilkenny Circuit Court over money laundering charges last July.

Money seized from her by gardaí included €1,000 worth of Qatari riyals found in her car, €9,000 concealed in the bottom of a make-up bag and £14,500 in a nappy stashed in storage locker.

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