Showbiz cocaine dealer fires his legal team as he makes bid to stop CAB seizing his house

Promoter and DJ Adam Keatinge turned up at High Court hearing this week where the Criminal Assets Bureau was due to seek an order to take possession of the property.

The convicted drug dealer said he had “fired” his solicitor and was now representing himself, adding that he has lodged an appeal against a court decision deeming the property the proceeds of crime.

Last November Judge Alex Owens ruled in favour of CAB granting orders being sought that the gold, cash and the Co Kildare property were the proceeds of crime.

Keatinge had denied the allegations in the CAB case despite his previous arrest and conviction after being caught with a kilo of cocaine.

This week he asked the judge if there was now a stay on the case to have his home in Ellistown, Co Kildare being seized until the Court of Appeal had dealt with his case.

Judge Owens explained that would be a matter for those judges to decide as would his request for a digital recording of the previous hearing which he did not attend.

The CAB case against Keatinge was then adjourned until such time CAB are in a position to continue with it.

Last November it emerged that one of Keatinge’s roles in the Kinahan Cartel-linked gang had been to rent properties which were then used by known criminals.

Keatinge, also known as Marcus Lane and Michael Keating, had also been caught in Northern Ireland in June 2016 in a van with €60,000 on his way to Belfast airport to fly to Amsterdam.

He also had €10,000 in €500 notes in his underpants when arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland along with three other men.

The arrests in Northern Ireland and the evidence found on the phones kick-started the investigation by CAB who had previously probed the Dubliner’s financial dealings.

In the CAB case against him a Detective Inspector said Keatinge was “a player of significance in the Freddie Thompson gang”.

While Keatinge had denied the claim the officer in a replying affidavit to the High Court said Keatinge did not “contest the evidence” on his connections with the crime gang and stood over his assertions.

Keatinge, a music events coordinator and DJ, and his partner Ms Veronika Saly, a former dancer who had worked in a Dublin hairdresser, had claimed that CAB's investigation was incomplete.

They rejected the claims that money used to pay for their properties originated in the proceeds of crime and sources of legitimate income that was not investigated by CAB.

He claimed that businesses he operated, FNO Promotions Ltd and Ace of Clubs in Belfast were cash based.

When contacted by the Sunday World in November, Keatinge said that he would be appealing the decision against him which he described as “fabricated”.

In his November judgement Judge Owens described Keatinge as a person who was "heavily involved in criminal operations" including the planned importation and supply of cocaine.

There was no explanation for large sums of money that went through his bank accounts or the accounts of entities linked to him other than the moneys were from the proceeds of crime.

CAB claimed for many years large sums of money were received by Keatinge which he used to buy a home in Knocklyon in Dublin.

That property was subsequently sold and used to acquire his home in Ellistown, Co Kildare for €300,000 in 2014, which was funded with a mortgage from a financial institution.