Man charged with laundering €64k claimed he saved the money for brother's transplant
Olivia Kelleher
A man who was charged with money laundering €64,000 in cash claimed in a garda interview that he had been saving the money for a kidney transplant for his brother in Poland, but he died before he could undergo surgery.
Piotr Szczepanik (49) of South Douglas Road in Cork city was jailed for two and a half years, with the last year suspended, after he pleaded guilty to money laundering and a count of having cannabis for sale and supply.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard evidence from Det Garda Dylan Murphy, who said that Szczepanik was arrested on May 6th 2021, in Cork city after gardaí got a smell of cannabis from his car when they stopped him.
Gardaí subsequently went to the then home of Szczepanik in Wilton in Cork city, where they executed a search warrant.
They brought a dog which detects drugs with them to the property. The dog uncovered a small quantity of cannabis in a bedroom at the property.
Gardaí then removed a timber panel at the top of the wardrobe. There, they found cannabis with a street value of €4,426.
€64,000 in cash was wrapped in clingfilm and concealed in medical supply boxes. Szczepanik told gardaí that he had placed the cash in clingfilm to stop it from getting damp.
Judge Sinead Behan was told that when Szczepanik was interviewed by gardaí, he insisted that he had saved the cash from his disability benefit and from odd jobs such as cutting hair and fixing electronic goods.
He was interviewed by gardaí on three occasions and denied being involved in the sale and supply of drugs.
He also claimed that he was saving the money for back surgery after the kidney transplant surgery for his brother fell through.
When gardaí asked him why he didn’t lodge the money in a bank, he stated that he didn’t trust institutions, which he described as “robbers.”
Defence barrister Mahon Corkery said that it was the first appearance of his client in the circuit court. He asked for an adjournment of the case to allow Szczepanik to engage with a rehabilitation centre for his addiction issues.
He said that a mitigating factor in the case was that Szczepanik had entered a guilty plea.
The Judge refused to adjourn sentencing in the case. She set a headline sentence for three years.
Taking the guilty plea into consideration, she reduced the sentence to two and a half years, suspending the last year of the sentence.
