Healthcare worker jailed for money laundering

By Isabel Hayes

A healthcare worker who was caught with more than €180,000 of a drug gang’s proceeds in her bedroom wardrobe has been jailed for three years.

Samantha Ward (30) was caught with bundles of cash hidden in the bottom of her wardrobe at her home in Wheatfield Grove, Clondalkin after gardaí received a confidential tip-off.

Ward pleaded guilty to one count of possession of the proceeds of crime at her home address on December 3, 2023. She has no previous convictions.

Garda Ronan Doolin told Marc Murphy BL, prosecuting, that gardaí were alerted to the fact that Ward was holding cash for a drugs gang and a search warrant was obtained.

When officers from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau raided Ward’s home, where she lived with her husband, mother and brother, they found bundles of cash hidden behind the kickboard of a wardrobe which had been modified to conceal the cash. The full amount recovered was €182,450, the court heard.

Ward shared the bedroom with her husband, but he was not charged in relation to this offence, Gda Doolin said.

Jennifer Jackson BL, defending, said her client cooperated with gardaí and has not come to attention since her arrest in 2023.

She and her husband had a drug problem at the time and she was holding the cash in order to pay off a combined debt of €5,000, the court heard. This incident was a “devastating wake-up call” for her and Ward is now drug-free, the court heard.

Sentencing Ward, Judge Martin Nolan said she was vulnerable and had run up a drug debt. He said she would have known what she was doing was wrong.

Taking into account the maximum sentence is 14 years, he set a headline sentence of six years, which he said he would cut in half due to the good mitigation in the case.

He set a sentence of three years to start from Thursday’s date.