Hardy reaches settlement with Criminal Assets Bureau

Local man Leonard Hardy, who is currently in custody in Spain for allegedly being involved in money laundering, has reached settlement here for almost €500,000 with the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

The convicted IRA member and his wife, Donna Maguire, were both arrested by the Spanish authorities in the Canaries last week, following an investigation into the laundering of millions of euro netted from alleged trafficking in counterfeit cigarettes.

Maguire has since been released but Hardy remained in custody as of last night, according to a report in today’s Irish Independent.

The two were part of a Provisional IRA unit that had been active on mainland Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s and were subsequently convicted of terrorist offences. They currently live in Mountpleasant, just outside Dundalk.

Hardy was on a bureau “hit” list of 240 figures, who include their prime targets for the coming year.

Last July, Hardy was fined €10,000 in Dublin Circuit Court for tax irregularities after the bureau sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

He was also served with a tax bill for more than €500,000 by the bureau. But he has since reached a settlement for slightly less than that figure and has started paying off his tax debt.

Local couple amongst those arrested by Spanish police in tobacco smuggling crackdown

Donna Maguire

A local couple were among five Irish nationals, a Norwegian and a Spanish lawyer who were arrested last week in what is understood to be a major Spanish police operation against tobacco smuggling linked to south Armagh.

The arrests are understood to include husband and wife, Donna Maguire and Leonard ‘Bap’ Hardy, who served prison sentences in Holland and Germany for their parts in IRA attacks on the Continent in the late 1980s.

Hardy (54) and Maguire (57) are married with four children and live in the Mountpleasant area of Dundalk.

According to yesterday’s Sunday Independent, it is understood one of the other Irish nationals arrested in operations across Murcia, Alicante and Gran Canaria at the start of last week is a Co Antrim man who has been living in the north Louth area in recent years.

He was previously questioned over a major cigarette smuggling operation after gardai and customs stopped a lorry near Castlebellingham, Co Louth in September 2013. The lorry was found to contain cigarettes with a retail value put at €4.3m. Seven people were arrested but no one charged.

The haul was seized after the cigarettes were detected when Islamic terrorists fired a rocket at the cargo ship carrying the container along the Suez Canal in July 2013. The container was inspected when the ship docked in Rotterdam. It was logged as containing furniture for a non-existent company in Dundalk but found to contain boxes of cigarettes, which had originated in Indonesia. No charges were brought in relation to the seizure.

The Independent said the arrests were made after a major investigation into smuggling and money laundering by the Spanish Policia Nacional.

It is understood Hardy and Maguire were arrested at an apartment in Malaga on Tuesday and she was later released without charge. The couple are receiving consular assistance, the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed last week. His detention was extended on Wednesday by a judge in Malaga on the application of the Policia.

Convicted IRA bomber avoids jail for failing to make tax returns

A convicted IRA bomber has avoided jail for failing to make tax returns. Leonard Hardy of Mountpleasant, Dundalk settled with the Revenue for €280,000.

The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday that the 53-year-old has served time in prison for bombing a British Army base in Germany and for possession of explosives in Ireland – convictions that were described as from ‘another world’ and a ‘chapter’ of his life.

Mr Hardy, who is originally from Belfast, was described as integral to the Good Friday Agreement – helping to keep the agreement on track through fragile periods.

The prosecution did not detail how much income tax Hardy failed to pay between 2002 and 2009 when his tax affairs came under scrutiny. However Judge Mary Ellen Ring noted he reached settlements with the Revenue for a total of €280,000 which he has now paid.

She also said she was ‘slightly baffled’ that Hardy is on legal aid with the consent of the DPP when he was able to settle with the Revenue for such large sums. She imposed a €10,000 fine on Hardy for the Revenue offences and gave him a year to pay.