The Court of Appeal kept Tanya Breen’s three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for two money-laundering offences but increased the suspended portion from six months to 15 months. It quashed the Circuit Court sentence and substituted a sentence with the final 15 months suspended.
Breen had appealed the severity of the sentence imposed on 4 February 2021 in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. She had pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering under section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010. The offences involved about €123,000.
The Court of Appeal judgment, delivered by President Birmingham on 6 December 2021, said Gardaí observed Breen hand a paper bag to the driver of a co-accused’s car at a Maxol filling station on the Naas Road on 11 February 2020. The bag contained €59,710. A search of Breen’s home in Ballyfermot found another €63,550 and a tick-list. The sentencing court was told that Breen did not own the cash and was paid to hold and distribute it for others.
The Circuit Court judge set a five-year sentence on each count, to run concurrently, before taking mitigation into account. The judge reduced the sentence to three and a half years and suspended the final six months. Mitigation included Breen’s early guilty plea, previous good character, personal and family circumstances, low risk of reoffending and the impact of imprisonment during the pandemic. The judge described the offending as mid-level and said Breen and her co-accused were links facilitating the movement of criminal proceeds.
On appeal, Breen argued that the judge wrongly treated the seriousness of the offence as an aggravating factor, gave insufficient weight to mitigation and should have suspended more of the sentence. The Director of Public Prosecutions argued that the judge had considered the relevant aggravating and mitigating factors appropriately.
The Court of Appeal rejected the argument that the sentencing judge had treated the offence’s inherent seriousness as an aggravating factor. It nevertheless found that the balance between the prison term to be served and the suspended portion was wrong. The court said the offending was serious and involved funds linked to two locations, but also said the term should not be longer than necessary given Breen’s personal circumstances and lack of previous convictions. It ordered that the final 15 months of the three-and-a-half-year sentence be suspended.