Dundon gangster’s fiancee jailed for 18 months for money laundering

The fiancee of notorious crime boss Dessie Dundon has been jailed for 18 months for money laundering.

Ciara Lynch, 33, was sentenced at Portlaoise Circuit Court last month, but details have only emerged now. She pleaded guilty in January after being caught red-handed by undercover gardai when €50,000 was handed over to her.

It came as she sat in a car with “lifelong friend” Kathleen O’Reilly, 42, who also pleaded guilty to the same offence. The cash pick-up happened in the car park of the Midway Food Court in Portlaoise, Co Laois on April 6, 2020.

In January, Portlaoise Circuit Court heard Detective Garda Ger Galway give evidence that an investigation arose from confidential information about the transfer of a large sum of cash. At 1pm on the day of the offence, gardai were watching the Midway Food Court when a car parked up.

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Over an hour later, a white Mercedes A-class with altered registration plates and driven by Ciara Lynch arrived. O’Reilly, of Castletroy Halting Site, Limerick, was in the front passenger seat.

Gardai observed a man approach the Mercedes with a Mr Price shopping bag and hand it through the front passenger window of the car. The vehicle was driven away but was stopped by gardai on the M7 travelling in the Limerick direction.

Gardai recovered €50,000 in used €50 notes from the Mercedes and Lynch and O’Reilly were arrested. The court heard Lynch replied “No comment” to all questions.

In Garda interviews, O’Reilly said only that she was in Portlaoise to go shopping and denied having any knowledge of the €50,000 cash handover. Under cross-examination, the detective accepted O’Reilly was not a member of a criminal gang and that she had no role in organising the handover of money.

Detective Garda Galway said neither woman had any history of gainful employment in many years and both are in receipt of social welfare. The court heard Lynch has three previous convictions, including for violent disorder and assault.

Judge Keenan Johnson described Lynch as the “more culpable” of the pair.

Until her sentencing last month, Ciara Lynch had been calling to see Dessie Dundon every week in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison. They recently got engaged and plan to marry on his release.

He has served over 22 years of a life sentence for the murder of rival gang boss Kieran Keane in Limerick in 2003 and is due to be freed from prison shortly. Lynch is detained in the Dochas Women’s Centre in Mountjoy.

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