A convicted killer with no legitimate income who was also involved in the Limerick gang feuds spent over €100,000 renovating his home in the city.
Richard Treacy, 36, pleaded guilty to money laundering after allowing the proceeds of crime to be used for work on the house in Garryowen, that he shared with his partner.
The house was registered in the name of his mother, but Treacy lives there with his partner and two children.
Gardaí searched the house on 17 June 2020 and found €4,000 in a sock drawer in the bedroom, €500 and €600 in cash in a kitchen cupboard and £3,900 in sterling.
Treacy said his mother gave him the €4,000 for an extension but gave no explanation for the sterling. He said he was saving the €600 and that the €500 was his dole the previous day.
The Special Criminal Court was told that Treacy was on social welfare, there was no record of him having ever worked and there was no explanation for the money used in the renovations which were described as "grandiose".
Treacy has ten previous convictions for violent disorder, threatening and abusive behaviour, driving offences and manslaughter.
He was sentenced to six years in 2007 for the manslaughter of Darren Coughlan, who was beaten to death in Limerick in 2005.
The court was told that the violent disorder related to a feud with another family in the city and that the killing was also a feud-related incident and the deceased was a relation of a high-end criminal in the city.
Three years later, Mr Coughlan's brother John, shot dead Treacy’s older brother Daniel in what was described in court as a tragedy. John Coughlan was jailed for life for the murder.
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Treacy is also a nephew of the Limerick gang leader and drug dealer Christy Keane but the 36-year-old has been "nine years trouble free" and is the father of two young children who are "a positive influence in his life."
His defence counsel asked the three judges to recuse themselves from the case because of testimony linking his client to organised crime.
However prosecuting counsel Fiona Murphy said the garda felt it was appropriate "to give some context" to those previous offences and this evidence had been led in other cases.
The court, she said, was "well able to draw a clear blue line" in relation to these matters.
Ms Justice Karen O'Connor said the three judges were very experienced in ignoring matters that are not part of the case and said they were not prepared to recuse themselves and did not believe it was necessary.
The judge said that she will sentence Treacy in October.
