Courts / Kildare / Report
Trusted Kinahan cash launderer jailed while partner gets suspended sentence
Summary
The Special Criminal Court sentenced Jonathan Harding to five years and three months' imprisonment for laundering over €342,000 for a serious criminal organisation. Harding, 48, pleaded guilty to five offences under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act 2010. Mr Justice Tony Hunt imposed a headline sentence of six years and nine months, suspending the final 18 months on all charges, with all sentences running concurrently. Harding signed a bond to be of good behaviour for three years post-release. The judge noted Harding's prior conviction for possessing nine revolvers, four pistols, a sub-machine gun, an assault rifle, and ammunition, for which he received a ten-year sentence in January 2018. Co-accused Carol Davis, 45, pleaded guilty to three offences under the same Act, admitting she was reckless in allowing Harding access to her accounts but denying involvement in underlying criminality. She received a three-year suspended sentence on all offences, signing a bond to be of good behaviour for that duration. The court found that accounts linked to both were used as a travel service for the organisation. Separately, Declan Brady, 54, was previously sentenced to 11-and-a-half years' imprisonment in July 2019 after pleading guilty to possessing the same weapons cache, having been tasked by senior criminal figures to supervise it.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Trusted Kinahan cash launderer jailed while partner gets suspended sentence. Charges or matters: three offences under the same Act and received a three-year suspended sentence on all offences; the possession of nine revolvers, four pistols, a sub-machine gun, an assault rifle and various ammunition magazines and was sentenced to ten years in prison with one year suspended in January 2018. Procedural stage: sentence
When:
- January 24, 2017 Other
- January 2018 Incident
- July 2019 Incident
- 2012 to 2016 Other
- 2014 to 2016 Other
- 2014 and 2016 Other
- 2012 and 2016 Incident
- 2020-12-15 Publication
Case subjects
Defendant
Charges: three offences under the same Act and received a three-year suspended sentence on all offences; the possession of nine revolvers, four pistols, a sub-machine gun, an assault rifle and various ammunition magazines and was sentenced to ten years in prison with one year suspended in January 2018 (Admitted)
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: Mr Justice Hunt said that a pre-mitigation headline sentence was three years for each of Davis' three offences before he suspended all three in their entirety, with Davis signing a bond to be of good behaviour for that time. Det Sgt Anderson told the court that Davis had no previous but that Harding had seven convictions, for theft and fraud, and was given a ten-year sentence from the Special Criminal Court for the firearms offences.
Convicted Person
Outcome: Declan Brady (54), who is known as 'Mr Nobody' and who was tasked by senior criminal figures abroad to supervise the weapons cache, was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years imprisonment after pleading guilty to possession of the weapons.
Convicted Person
Charges: three offences under the same Act and received a three-year suspended sentence on all offences; the possession of nine revolvers, four pistols, a sub-machine gun, an assault rifle and various ammunition magazines and was sentenced to ten years in prison with one year suspended in January 2018 (Admitted)
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: Harding (48) was sentenced this morning for laundering a total of over €342K for what presiding judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt called a "serious criminal organisation" of which Harding was a "trusted adherent" from 2012 to 2016. Mr Justice Hunt sentenced Harding to six years and nine months' imprisonment but suspended the final 18 months on five separate charges, leaving a net sentence of five years and three months.
Places mentioned
- Special Criminal Court
- Mountjoy
- Mountjoy Prison
Topics
Fraud Stage Sentence Violent Crime
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