A 21-year-old Tralee man who allowed his bank account to be used for money laundering by criminal gangs “knew the money wasn’t coming from the tooth fairy”.
That’s according to Judge David Waters, who convicted the man on for allowing almost €10,000 to be laundered through his account by criminal gangs.
21-year-old Pádraig McCannon, of 19 Lios Rua, Cahermoneen, Tralee, pleaded guilty to the offences and was fined €700.
The court heard that Mr McCannon’s bank account came to garda attention during an operation investigating money laundering.
Sgt Manton told the court Mr McCannon was allowing his AIB account to launder money for criminal gangs on three separate dates in 2020.
These amounts were €3,000 on July 23rd 2020, a further almost €5,000 on July 27, and over €2,000 on August 6th the same year.
Solicitor Pat Mann said Mr McCannon was 18 at the time, and co-operated fully with gardaí, including discussing how transactions were made.
Mr Mann said his client essentially got nothing from this, and in these cases, only the people down the line get caught.
Mr Mann told Judge Waters lots of Mr McCannon’s friends were doing it too, and he was told he’d get a few quid from it.
Pat Mann said he more so meant Mr McCannon’s attitude towards it, which was just having a bit of fun with the whole thing.
Mr Mann pleaded with Judge Waters not to convict him, as a criminal conviction of money laundering would hamper the young man’s chance of ever going travelling.
Judge Waters disagreed with the implication that Mr McCannon did not know what he was doing, as he knew the money wasn’t coming from the tooth fairy.
Judge Waters said it was calculated criminal activity over a period of time, and convicted him of the three offences and fined him €700.
