cartel links Man jailed for mortgage scam probed by CAB after secret trips to meet mob in Dubai

Dean Masterson delivers milk around Ratoath, Co Meath

February 07 2021 05:20 PM

A convicted criminal jailed for using false documents in a mortgage application to KBC Bank is the target of an investigation into mob money laundering.

Dean Masterson was sentenced to four years imprisonment with three suspended this week after a court heard he submitted false salary slips, a P60 and fake bank statements when he tried to buy a house at Stonebridge in Ratoath in Co Meath in 2016.

Staff at the KBC Bank in Dublin became suspicious, an investigation was launched and he failed to get the loan.

However, Masterson was already on the radar of the Garda’s Drug and Organised Crime Bureau and the Criminal Aseets Bureau (CAB) investigating Kinahan mafia money. Masterson has been working as a milkman and uses an old Caddy van on his rounds in Co Meath.

Christy Kinahan Junior

But he has also been taking numerous expensive trips to Dubai in recent years and has been collated with key members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.

Detectives trying to get to the bottom of their finances in Ireland and how they pay their drug mules here, believe they have always used a structured wage system like an ordinary business.

It is understood that E1,000 a week is a top executive salary within the mob, with the wages reducing under that – but that bonus payments are made at summer and Christmas times.

Masterson is a close friend of Christopher Kinahan Jnr who has operated the money laundering side of the mob for years.

For years, he lived in Spain and was often seen driving Kinahan and his cohorts around the Costa.

When he returned to Dublin he began to drive a taxi and was working as a cabbie when he attempted to raise the mortgage on the house.

Dublin Circuit Court heard that personnel at the bank became suspicious of the documents which included a false payslip, P60 and two fake bank statements.

Judge Pauline Codd said Masterson had ‘premeditation and deliberation’ when he tried to draw down the funds in 2016 and had serious previous convictions, including attempted robbery and robbery. She said she would take into account his ‘expression of remorse and shame, his history of addiction, his adverse childhood experiences, his work history and his efforts to rehabilitate’.

She sentenced him to four years in prison but suspended the final three on strict conditions.

However the Sunday World can reveal that Masterson remains under investigation due to his alleged links to the Kinahan organisation.

It is understood that following his debacle with the bank he spent protracted periods of time in Dubai in the company of senior mob men.

In 2019, the house in Ratoath was raided by CAB and it was discovered he still lived there despite never getting a mortgage.

Deeds uncovered show how the house is owned by a prominent builder.

The well-known construction boss found himself caught up in a Garda investigation last year when another house he owns was raided in the posh suburb of Blackrock in south county Dublin.

Real IRA thug Nathan Kinsellawas discovered living in the €1million property when members of the Special Detective Unit searched it, sparking fears that the developer has been strongarmed by criminal elements.

Jobless enforcer Kinsella is understood to have threatened a number of individuals in recent months in a bid to fund a large number of dependants.

It is understood that CAB investigations into a number of mob money men are underway.

The builder has been interviewed a number of times by gardai.