Showbiz star scammed bank with EX-IRA man, but I’ll not reveal name
Detective’s new book on fraudsters
A FORMER detective today lifts the lid on his time hunting fraudsters all over Ireland — including a man who later became a major figure in the entertainment industry.
But, in an interview to mark the launch of his time as a top fraud investigator, retired Detective Superintendent Willie Mcgee says he will never reveal the VIP’S name.
“I will take his name to my grave,” Mr Mcgee, 75, said.
He also reveals in his new book, Tales From The Fraud Squad that the personality later bribed a Garda to steal his details from the unit.
And that means there is no record of his criminality on the Garda PULSE computer system.
Mr Mcgee says in his book that the personality was a young man in the late 1970s when he became involved with a republican terrorist – who scammed from Bank of Ireland.
The move saw the former IRA man steal the equivalent of €125,000 in today’s money forging bank drafts – and conning staff into believing they were legitimate and cashing them.
The entertainer played a key role by collecting the cash from banks – but later had a falling out with the former IRA man, who anonymously shopped him to gardai.
Mr Mcgee led a raid on the suspect’s home in the plush part of South Dublin and arrested him as he tried to escape out the back window. The entertainment figure immediately broke down and confessed.
But he was so terrified of the former IRA man – who ran an offshoot called Saor Eire in the 1970s that murdered Garda Dick Fallon in Dublin and carried out robberies – that he refused to name him.
“He nearly had a nervous breakdown,” Mr Mcgee says. “He confessed everything. He said he would admit to everything concerning his part in the conspiracy, but he would not under any circumstances identify the ringleader in his evidence.
“He was terrified of the man… he knew that this fella was dangerous and he wasn’t wrong there.”
The future VIP’S case went to court and he pleaded guilty – but he was given the benefit of the probation act, which means no criminal conviction.
Mr Mcgee also said there were no journalists in the court – so the VIP did not appear in the newspapers.
And Mr Mcgee says the final insult came a few weeks later – when the file on the future VIP disappeared from the Fraud Squad office.
He says: “It just vanished into thin air. Almost certainly, someone inside was bribed to remove the file.”
And he spoke of his anger at seeing the man later publicly hailed – while he and only a few others knew his dark secret. “For those of us who investigated him at the time, it did not sit well to see him hailed as a pillar of society in the decades to come. We had a different take on him. He was a thief and a liar – and a leopard doesn’t change his spots.”
But Mr Mcgee said that he will never name the VIP – because he is a wealthy man.
He said: “I’ll never say who it is. He wasn’t on TV that much, he would be behind the scenes.
“I couldn’t name him or even give you a clue – he is still alive and a wealthy man.
“Actually somebody there rang me last week and said ‘was it Joe Dolan?’
I said ‘no, no, he wasn’t that entertaining.
“Other people know who he is; I’d love to be able to name him, but I will take it to my grave.”
And Mr Mcgee also spoke of his disappointment his details were stolen from the Fraud Squad office.
He said: “We had our collation system in there of small cards in alphabetical order and cross referenced.
“He obviously knew someone in the fraud squad or someone related who definitely slipped out the pieces of paper.
“When all the records were put on the PULSE [Garda computer] system his paper records were gone and never went on the system.”
Mr Mcgee, who retired as a detective superintendent in the Fraud
Squad in 2002 , spent decades hunting white collar criminals – and reveals in the book he had two very different interactions with former Taoisigh.
In 1997, he and another superintendent interviewed Charles Haughey under caution for obstructing the Mccracken Tribunal into payments for politicians – something over which he was later charged.
But the case against the former Fianna Fail leader later collapsed after comments were made about it in the Dail after he had been charged.
The judge ruled the comments were so serious that Mr Haughey could not hope to get a fair trial.
Mr Mcgee said Mr Haughey showed no aggression to him and his colleague during the interview at his North Dublin home – and even made them coffee. He says: “We were treated with the utmost respect and courtesy by Mr Haughey and his team of four legal advisors.”
The same year, Mr Mcgee became aware that former Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Albert Reynolds had become linked to Patrick Russell, a man later convicted of serous fraud.
He said he tried to pass a warning on to Mr Reynolds through a bank manager that he was mixing with the wrong people – but the former Taoiseach rebuffed him.
He said: “The bank manager met with Mr Reynolds subsequently and informed him of my offer but the offer was flatly rejected he retorted that if he wished to receive any such advice he would deal with the Garda commissioner and not a superintendent in the Fraud Squad.”