Martin Morgan's confiscation appeal dismissed over brothel profits

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

Martin Morgan’s appeal against a confiscation order was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 31 July 2018, although the court varied the benefit figure to €243,583. Mr Justice Hedigan delivered the judgment.

A jury convicted Morgan on 22 February 2008 of managing a brothel and organising prostitution. The offending took place in 2005 at a premises on Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin. He was sentenced to three years in prison and fined €24,000. His appeal against conviction was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal. The judgment said he had served the prison sentence and paid the fine.

On 28 June 2013, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court directed that €252,980.33 be confiscated from Morgan. He appealed, arguing that the finding about how much could be realised was unsupported by the evidence and that the court had failed to apply the statutory limit on the amount recoverable.

Morgan submitted that the trial judge had not adequately considered his travel and legal expenses. The Court of Appeal held that expenses of the criminal activity, defence costs and costs of meeting bail conditions could not be set off against the benefit from crime, although they could be relevant when assessing realisable assets. It held that the amount could be recovered from assets he possessed when the order was made.

The court noted that it was effectively conceded that €9,397 should be deducted from the original benefit figure. A later case snippet identifies the credit as cash seized in the brothel at the time of arrest.