Mother and bus driver jailed for laundering ‘drugs’ cash

A mother-of-one and a Dublin bus driver have been jailed for laundering tens of thousands of euro allegedly linked to the criminal drugs trade.

Lawyers for Tanya Breen (30) and Laurence Keane (42) told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that their clients were asked to the move the cash by people whose “modus operandi” was to use people who had not come to garda attention.

The court heard that on February 11 last gardai carrying out surveillance of Breen’s home at Colepark Green, Ballyfermot, Dublin city followed her driving to a Maxol filling station on the Longmile Road.

Breen parked up at the front of the shop beside a Kia Sportage car, which was occupied by Keane, a bus driver from Galtymore Rd., Drimnagh. Breen went around the side of her car and took out a paper bag, which she handed to Keane.

Gardai then moved in and arrested the pair. They found a bag containing bundles of cash in the footwell of the Kia Sportage.

In a follow up search of Breen’s home gardai found a further €63,550 in cash, including €3,000 inside a jacket, Detective Garda Mark Berigan told Grainne O’Neill BL, prosecuting.

Both accused subsequently pleaded guilty to possession of €59,710 in cash, which was the proceeds of crime, at Maxol Service Station on the Longmile Road, Dublin, on February 11, 2020.

Breen also pleaded guilty to a second count of possessing the proceeds of crime at her home on the same date. Neither accused have any previous convictions.

Keith Spencer SC, defending Keane, said a person had heard his client complaining he could not afford a family holiday and told him he could make some “easy money”.

Breen’s lawyer Dean Kelly SC told the court that his client was a single mother struggling with household bills and that she gave in to temptation.

Passing sentence today, Judge Elma Sheahan said the defendants were willing to put their good character on the line for either €500, if Breen is to be believed, or for €100 or €200, if Keane is believed.

Judge Sheahan said there was no threat or compulsion in this case and that this offence was done due to a “lifestyle choice” and so the culpability is high. She said the court does not accept that “vulnerability was at play here”.

She sentenced Breen to three-and-a-half years imprisonment, but suspended the final six months of the sentence on condition that she keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 12 months post release.

Judge Sheahan sentenced Keane to two-and-a-half years imprisonment, but suspended the final six months on the same condition as his co-accused.