House seized by CAB from top Kinahan lieutenant used by notorious gangland murderer

Doyle, who is serving life for the 2008 murder of innocent rugby player Shane Geoghegan, gave the Hyde Road property as his address when first arrested for the killing.

It’s one of two houses on the terrace where mob boss John Dundon also lived and where properties were targeted in raids by gardaí this week in an operation aimed at the McCarthy-Dundon gang.

Browning bought the Hyde Road houses in 2007 and 2008 and made payments from bank accounts to pay off the mortgages.

They properties have since been declared to be the proceeds of crime in a CAB case, which sources have told the Sunday World were given to Browning as part of a drug debt to the cartel.

In 2008 and 2009, he got rent subsidy payments for a third property in the same area of Limerick for a house occupied by the girlfriend of a local criminal.

In a ruling this week, properties worth €1.7 million were deemed criminal proceeds in which the money for the homes came from Browning as the Kinahans’ top man in Ireland.

These included his luxury mansion at Garristown, north-west Dublin, complete with its indoor equestrian centre and the refurbished lodge house occupied by his mother Julie Conway and her ex-garda husband, David O’Brien.

The case against Browning, who showered family members with cash and gifts, revealed how he came a long way in the criminal underworld from an 18-year-old armed robber to the Kinahan Cartel’s No.1 man in Ireland.

But his attempt to hide his drug-money millions in his family tree failed to fool the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Properties, cars, cash and jewellery in different relatives’ names were deemed as coming from Browning’s criminal activities.

Browning didn’t contest the case, which was also brought against his partner Sinead Mulhall; his sisters Robyn and Cheryl; her partner Stephen Fowler; his mother Julie Conway; his aunt Lesley Conway and second cousin Ian O’Heaire.

The key to the case was an uninhabitable, fire-damaged house at Deanstown Road, Finglas, north Dublin, originally bought in the name of his now deceased grandfather, William Conway, for €57,000 in 2012.

It was then sold for €130,000 to O’Heaire and the money from the sale used to buy property at Garristown, which included the derelict Chesnut Lodge.

Nothing was in Ross Browning’s name, but Judge Alex Owens concluded almost all the money ultimately came from the man CAB described as a senior Kinahan cartel lieutenant.

The Deanstown property was refurbished to ‘a high standard’ and has been occupied by an uncle, his partner and family rent-free since 2012.

“It is difficult to conceive of any rationale of William Conway for the purchase of Deanstown Road for himself.”

“Ross Browning was the only possible source for cash which paid for renovations to this house,” Judge Owens said.​

The judge also concluded there was “never any question that Ian O’Heaire would get Deanstown Road for himself... He could not expect to get a house which was worth €130,000 for €100,000.”

Both O’Heaire and Conway had previously received compensation payments which covered the property transactions, which CAB said were orchestrated by Browning to appear legitimate.

In a period of two-and-a-half years from 2010 properties were bought and substantial sums spent on them.

Cash was then showered on the property at Garristown, where Chesnut Lodge was virtually rebuilt along with a new house which had no planning permission, as well as horse stables.

Judge Owens said Browning and Sinead Mulhall’s income during this time was “very modest” – they could not haveafforded “to make savings, or buy and pay for the...training of a trotting horse, or engage in property purchases”.

Neither did they have money to build and renovate houses, to set up and equip a gym business or pay large sums of cash for cars.

Judge Owens found the houseat Garristown, Naul, and the renovations there were done “with money supplied by Ross Browning, which represented proceeds of crime.”

Members of the family worked at his gym, which didn’t have a bank account, for three years, and enjoyed foreign holidays and valuable gifts. Cash, cars and jewellery were seized during raids in 2018 from some of their addresses.

These included a Cartier watch worth €2,200, a ladies Rolex watch worth €9,000, two gents Rolex watches worth €4,000 and €25,000, a €13,000 diamond ring at Cheryl Browning’s Dublin 1 flat.

Cheryl’s partner, Barry Finnegan, is regarded as a Kinahan cartel member, and a black VW Golf parked outside her home was also declared the proceeds of crime.

Another €6,400 found at Robyn Browning’s flat was also declared criminal proceeds. as was aVW Golf 12D and the €4,900 cash found at his aunt Lesley Conway’s home.

The evidence considered in the case included a transfer of €40,000 over 12 months from one of Browning’s AIB accounts to a Spanish bank account of a corporation associated with Daniel Kinahan for a property purchase in Brazil.

At the time, according to Revenue, he worked as a bricklayer.

The judge also referred to garda evidence that Ross Browning and Sinead Mulhall attended the wedding of Daniel Kinahan in Dubai in 2017. He also attended Christopher Kinahan Jr’s wedding in 2007.

While in Spain in 2010 his residence was searched as part of an operation relating to the Kinahans and a handgun was recovered.

He also has a long association with Stephen Fowler, who was involved in a plot to bring in a hitman from Eastern Europe and was convicted for a cannabis grow house.

His son, Eric Fowler, who was murdered in 2018, was a debt collector for Browning.

However, the Criminal Assets Bureau did not get everything their own way in yesterday’s judgement – with Judge Owens saying there was not enough evidence to say that €2,800 cash found at Chesnut Lodge and €2,750 at Cheryl Browning’s flat were criminal proceeds.

He also said the court was “reluctantly minded” to allow other provisions, ruling that Julie Conway and her husband a quarter of “the net proceeds” of the sale of Chesnut Lodge.

This is to reflect they had put some of their own money into the refurbishment.

The estate of William Conway is also to be paid €59,648, upon any sale of the property at Garristown which was in his name.

He made a similar order for €103,037 in favour of Ian O’Heaire to be paid from the proceeds of the sale of the Deanstown Road house.