Hannah O’Connor (26) told gardai she is “not a member of a crime group but a partner of a man who makes demands and refusing these demands is not an option,” Dundalk Circuit Court heard.
Hannah O’Connor pictured outside court in 2024. (Image: Mick O’Neill/Daily Mirror/Irish Daily Star)
The girlfriend of Drogheda mob boss Keith Boylan, who acted as a ‘conduit’ in laundering over half a million euro in illicit funds on his behalf for nearly four years, has been jailed for 15 months.
Hannah O’Connor (26) told gardai she is “not a member of a crime group but a partner of a man who makes demands and refusing these demands is not an option,” Dundalk Circuit Court heard.
Ms O’Connor, whose address cannot be published following an order made by Judge Dara Hayes, pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering between March 22, 2019 and November 24, 2022 and on dates between June 15, 2020 and December 5, 2022.
She also admitted to breaching Section 251 (1) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 and theft contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 Social Welfare payments from the Minister of Social Protection. She has no previous convictions.
She was not entitled to €75k social welfare due to her failure to disclose income and other means, the court heard. However, if she had declared her income and other means, she would have been entitled to some social welfare payments, the court heard.
The court also heard that Ms O’Connor, who has two young children with mob boss Keith Boylan, head of the Boylan Organised Crime Group, entered into a relationship with a man who was “up to his neck in criminality” and now “regrets facilitating his lifestyle while he was on the run.”
Boylan (30) of Moneymore in Drogheda, was named in court last year by a garda witness in a money laundering case as head of the crime group of violent thugs involved in drug dealing and the Drogheda feud. His brother Josh (26) was named as the group’s ‘second in command.’
Josh and Keith Boylan
The brothers have been on-the-run overseas since January 2020, the court heard.
At a sentencing hearing last month Detective Garda Niall McManus told prosecuting counsel the investigation into Ms O’Connor’s bank accounts forms part of an investigation relating to the Boylan Organised Crime Group targeting money laundering.
Two bank accounts – a Permanent TSB and a Revolut Account in Ms O’Connor’s name – were investigated.
The Permanent TSB account, Det Gda McManus said, was being used to launder monies connected to criminal conduct from March 11, 2019 until November 24, 2002.
He said during the same dates €80,287 was paid into that bank account by the Department of Social Protection, all of which €75,793 of which she was not entitled to claim due to failure to disclose income and other means.
On the same dates €51,406 was lodged into that account and €110,430 was transferred from her Permanent TSB account to her Revolut account.
A total of €35,606 was lodged into her Permanent TSB account by associates of the Boylan Organised Crime Group, the court heard.
In total there was €251,738.13 laundered money moved in that Permanent TSB account.
Det Gda McManus told the court gardai are satisfied Keith Boylan had control of the Revolut Account and was using it for day to day living expenses while on the run since January 2020 when he fled Drogheda.
Keith Boylan at court(Image: Supplied)
That Revolut account, which saw €251,738 laundered, was used in various locations across the world by Keith Boylan, including Cancun in Mexico, Istanbul in Turkey, Dubai and Belgrade in Serbia between 2020 and 2022.
The total amount of money laundered lodged and withdrawn in the two accounts came to €520,000.
The theft from Social Welfare charge relates to Ms O’Connor claiming social welfare but failed to inform the Department of her income and other means.
The court also heard Keith Boylan used her account to obtain pandemic unemployment payments (PUP) and put the money in her account.
When interviewed after her arrest in May 2023, Ms O’Connor told gardai she is the girlfriend of Keith Boylan but that they had broken up several times.
“When I first met Keith Boylan in 2018 he owned a garage but then there was more to it,” she told gardai.
“He was shot at by unknown people in May and June 2019 and there was an incident with my car,” Ms O’Connor told gardai.
She told gardai that Keith Boylan left Drogheda in January 2020, leaving her to raise her first child with him on her own. They now have two children together.
“He provided money for various living expenses,” she told gardai.
“He always pursued me to get me back. He was extremely manipulative, intimidating and I was afraid of him,” she told gardai in her interview.
She told gardai when she got a job he became aggressive and threatened to attack her workplace, and demanded she bring their child to Dubai. “I was afraid,” she told the gardai.
The court heard Keith Boylan had control of her account but that Ms O’Connor used it around 5% of the time for living expenses.
“I am not a member of a crime group. I am the partner of a man who makes demands and refusing these demands is not an option,” Ms O’Connor told gardai.
Defence counsel said Ms O’Connor, who comes from a good family background, and has no previous convictions, did not see anything untoward when she first got into a relationship with Keith Boylan.
“Things fizzled up and it became apparent there was more to it than that,” defence counsel said.
“She acted as a conduit to launder illegal money to Keith Boylan,” defence counsel said.
“Some money was lodged by [Boylan OCG] associates for Keith Boylan and her culpability was giving him means to access it,” defence counsel said.
“She is the sole carer of her children and Keith Boylan doesn’t live in Ireland but he has seen them in Dubai,” defence counsel said, adding Ms O’Connor wants to have her own independent means of support and has trained in personal fitness.
“She got in a relationship with a person up to his neck in criminality and became pregnant. She regrets facilitating his lifestyle while he was on the run.”
Handing down a three year and three month sentence with the final two years suspended on Friday, Judge Dara Hayes said Ms O’Connor “engaged in and assisted criminal proceeds over a three year and eight month period to facilitate Keith Boylan to live abroad beyond the reach of gardai, who have an interest in him.”
“She has shown remorse and I accept there was some element of fear but it’s clear she assisted him and kept the relationship despite his absence,” the judge said.
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