A Limerick District Court judge has ordered An Garda Síochána to deliver a large quantity of seized satellite television and electrical equipment to the owner of SatCity, finding that he had proved ownership on the balance of probabilities.
Judge Brian O’Shea delivered the decision on 5 October 2020 in an application under the Police (Property) Act 1897. The order must be complied with within 21 days. The judge said “delivery” referred to the statutory order and did not impose a practical obligation on the Garda respondent. He declined to stay the order.
The equipment, valued at about €17,000, was seized under a search warrant at SatCity, a business owned and operated by claimant Mikhail Yushchenko, at 12 Lower Gerard Griffin Street, Limerick. The judgment said the warrant and search were not contested. Gardaí gave the seized property to SKY for analysis and secure storage; the judge said the Garda respondent remained the party able to control it.
A SKY-engaged expert testified that a test purchase at the shop involved a satellite box which, the purchaser was told, would allow access to SKY television. The expert said the device was loaded with software for that purpose and classified the seized property as including items suspected of being loaded, counterfeit remote controls and stolen SKY property.
Yushchenko said many boxes were free-to-air and had no software, and that he reused hard drives from second-hand SKY HD boxes. He said remote controls were widely available and that he could not know whether any were counterfeit. He also said he did not intend to sell all the property. He could not explain the alleged conversation during the test purchase.
The judge said the investigation was complete and no prosecution had followed. He found the evidence opposing the claim was largely suspicion: the expert had not explained the basis for the classifications or linked particular items to the inventory, and none of the seized items was produced in court. The test-purchase item was not connected to the seized property, and it was unclear whether it was on the inventory.
The judge acknowledged reservations about Yushchenko’s inability to explain the test-purchase allegation and his evidence about counterfeit remotes, but said those concerns did not alter the result. He concluded that Yushchenko had established ownership and that the Garda opposition lacked the specificity needed to defeat the claim. The judgment did not determine whether any item had been used unlawfully; it decided the application for delivery on the evidence presented.