Revenue applies for extension to detention order on cash seized from Laois store
Browns store Dublin Road, Portlaoise
A REVENUE officer applied to Portlaoise District Court last week to extend a detention order on cash they seized from a local shop on 7 May last year.
The application was made in the case against Thomas Brown, c/o Midland Legal Solicitors, Fitzmaurice House, Bank Place, Portlaoise.
Judge Andrew Cody noted the date when Customs and Excise officials seized €24,895 in cash and 17,000 unstamped cigarettes from Brown’s, 1 Dublin Road, Portlaoise.
Solicitor Philip Meagher said that his client was not in a position to consent to the application, telling Judge Cody: “We’re neutral.” At a previous sitting of the case, the court heard the seizure was part of a customs operation tackling smuggling and the black market.
A customs officer testified that the goods were uncovered after a customs officer went into the Dublin Road store and bought a packet of cigarettes for €6 in a test purchase. In a subsequent search, officers found €24,895 in cash and 17,000 unstamped cigarettes on the premises.
A customs officer had previously told Judge Cody that shopkeeper Thomas Brown told him, under caution, that five or six blocks of unstamped cigarettes had been sold daily at the premises for the previous three or four years, which equated to between 7,000 and 8,000 cigarettes a week.
Last week, the revenue officer said she was seeking a further three-month detention order to allow them to continue their investigations into the case.
“You’ve had over seven months so far, “noted Judge Cody, to which the revenue officer replied: “The file is with the director of public prosecutions and were awaiting its directions.” Judge Cody agreed to extend the detention order to 8 July and said he expected some progress in the case by that time or he “may well release” the cash.
