The High Court has rejected a challenge to District Court orders which authorised Gardaí to retain €13,000 seized from an anonymised man’s home during a search.
The applicant, identified as K.K., had his house searched on October 12, 2007 under a warrant issued pursuant to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. Gardaí discovered a safe, which K.K. provided the details to open, and seized €13,000 under section 38 of the Criminal Justice Act 1994.
The following day, Garda Eamonn Taaffe obtained an order from District Judge John Coughlan authorising detention of the cash for three months. On January 11, 2008, District Judge Mary Collins extended the detention for another three months after an inter partes hearing.
K.K. sought judicial review, arguing first that amendments made in 2005 had created a legislative gap which meant the District Court no longer had statutory power under section 38(2) to authorise detention of cash seized under the amended provisions.
Mr Justice O’Neill rejected that interpretation. He held that the substituted wording introduced by the Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Act 2005 integrated into the existing statutory scheme and preserved the operation of section 38(2).
K.K. also argued that mistakes and omissions in the wording of the two District Court orders made them invalid. These included grammatical errors, incorrect statutory references and the failure to delete alternative grounds appearing on the forms.
The High Court found that the orders were imperfectly drafted but that the errors were not substantive. The first order referred to Garda Taaffe’s information, while evidence before the High Court established that sworn evidence had also been given on the second application.
The judge held that the essential statutory requirements had been followed and that both orders sufficiently disclosed the legal basis for detention. He therefore refused the judicial review relief sought.