CAB’S ‘FAT’ OF THE LAND
■ ‘Grandfather of crime’ Miley Connors’ home finally up for sale ■ Four other properties to go under the hammer in bumper offload by cops
EIGHT years after his death, burglary gang boss ‘Pale’ Miley Connors’ old house is part of a million-euro auction of properties seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).
Now boarded up and badly in need of repairs, the five-bed semi-D contrasts with some of the slick homes that Bureau will put under the hammer later this month.
Despite a minimum price of €240,000, similar houses in Belgard Heights, Tallaght, Dublin 24, have been going for well in excess of €400,000.
Members of the Pale Miley gang had been targets for CAB before the ‘grandfather of crime’ passed away in 2016.
His son, ‘Fat’ Andy Connors, was gunned down in a gangland murder in 2014, while another son, infamous burglar Jimmy Connors, died in 2019 after choking on food.
The sale of the house in Tallaght is one of five properties set for auction, along with homes taken from Kinahan cartel man Ross Browning and Cabra-based gangland figure Christopher ‘Git’ Waldron.
BUNGALOW
The sales, which include Browning’s sea-side plot in Rush, Co Dublin, are expected to net well over €1 million for the State.
Just last December CAB offloaded two properties linked to another Kinahan cartel figure, Liam Byrne, for €500,000 as well as drug dealer Barry Fowler’s house in Wexford for €266,000
Another member of the Pale Miley gang was forced to hand over a house bought with his ill-gotten gains in January this year.
Patrick Wall had bought the semi-detached bungalow in Newbridge, Co Kildare for €166,500 in cash despite not having had any income to explain his wealth.
That property has yet to go on the market.
The Pale Miley gang has been one of the most prolific burglary gangs in Ireland and was the focus of Operation Fiacla and Operation Thor.
Younger members of the gang have since been arrested and prosecuted over break-ins in the UK and in Melbourne, Australia.
In 2013, CAB seized almost €1m from the gang after a threeyear long investigation into its criminal activities.
Officers discovered a network of bank accounts with a total balance of more than €950,000, and got court orders to freeze the assets.
In 2021, a sister of Fat Andy’s, Elizabeth Wall, and her husband, John Wall, handed over five acres of land in Carlow and more than €130,000 in cash after they were targeted by CAB.
There was also a revenue demand for €2.5m put in place against Ann Connors, Fat Andy’s widow.
The Sunday World previously reported how CAB got ‘judge
ment’ mortgages on several properties in her name including ‘The Ranch’ and ‘The Villa’ properties.
It means any proceeds from Ann Connors’ interest in the properties would go to the CAB should the properties be sold.
Fat Andy once put The Villa, a large mansion on the Blessington Road outside Tallaght, on the market with a €3m price tag after being hit with a tax demand by CAB. He was later able to settle the bill without having to sell his trophy home.
However, the father-of-six was shot dead by a masked man at his home in Saggart, Co Dublin, in August 2014 in a murder witnessed by his wife, four of their children, and a niece.
EXTENSION
It also emerged this week Christopher ‘Git’ Waldron’s Cabra home at Killala Road was advertised for auction with a reserve price of €275,000.
Last year a similar end-ofterrace house on the same road went for €344,000.
Waldron’s house might be expected to reach an even higher price tag having had a two-storey extension added at the back and side of the house.
An estimated €430,000 was spent on renovating the house, according to CAB, which was bought by Waldron for a bargain €50,000 in 2013, according to the Price Property Register.
His brother David Waldron, a convicted drug dealer, is the target of a €2.9m CAB case which went to a two-day hearing, with a judgement yet to be made.
It centres around three properties in Dublin, Kildare and Wexford, including ‘Darview’ a luxury mansion.
Also, up for grabs in the online auctions are the properties linked to the Kinahan’s No1 man in Ireland, Ross Browning.
A cottage, a house, three stables and a large steel shed on 3.2 acres is set for auction with a reserve price of €550,000.
The cottage, Chesnut Lodge, at the Garristown site is where Browning’s mother Julie Conway and her partner ex-garda David O’Brien had been living.
Included in the sale is the three-bedroom red-bricked house where Browning lived with his partner Sinead Mulhall, as are two seaside plots in Rush, Co Dublin.