Dermot McManus remanded on bail ahead of sentencing for money laundering

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Dermot McManus pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to three money laundering charges. The proceedings were reported on 4 December 2023.

Mr Justice Paul Burns, sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Marie Keane, remanded McManus on continuing bail until 22 January 2024, when he was due to be sentenced.

The charges concerned handling €28,550 and £11,795 on 17 June 2020, and handling or using money credited to his Limerick and District Credit Union account between 1 January 2018 and 17 June 2020. In both cases, he admitted knowing, believing or being reckless as to whether the money was the proceeds of criminal conduct. He also pleaded guilty to handling a white Mercedes Sprinter van between 2 June 2020 and 23 May 2021.

Detective Garda Chris McGrath said the cash was found in two socks and a jacket pocket during a search of McManus’s Killalee home on 17 June 2020. He said McManus accepted the cash was his and claimed €9,550 came from market work and €10,000 from a van sale. Prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn said the prosecution’s position was that the money came from criminal conduct; the detective agreed.

The detective said McManus claimed he had bought the Sprinter in Northern Ireland for €4,500. In mitigation, defence counsel Roderick F O'Hanlon said McManus was blind in one eye and had Crohn’s disease, which caused dietary requirements in prison.

Charges against McManus’s partner, Terese Halpin, concerning possession of the same cash and allowing an account to be used to handle proceeds of crime, were dropped.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.