Crime World
Episode 1368: Brian Grendon to be sentenced after not paying tax on €27k cash found in his home
28 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What led to Brian Grendon's guilty plea for tax offences?
He had a report from his accountant. He basically said because the company was in difficulties and had been located as well in the North and in the UK, and that because there was an issue with the tax authorities in the UK due to the late filing of a deadline, the company was basically dissolved. He only dealt in cash, and that was his explanation for all of these... ...envelopes of money.
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Convicted criminal Brian Grendon will be sentenced next week after he pleaded guilty to tax offences on more than €27,000, which Gardaí found stuffed in his wardrobe. Grendon, who is in custody and before the court on unrelated charges, denied he was involved with an organised crime group when quizzed under arrest and told officers he liked staying at the station.
I'm talking to Niall Donald about Grendon and his problems with the revenue. There was an interesting case heard this week around Brian Grendon, who was basically is due to be sentenced next week after he's been found. You know, he's been found guilty on an income tax. You're not paying income tax on a sum of money which was found in his home during a raid in 2022.
Now, Grendon is before the court's on an unrelated matter also but we're just going to refer to this case so Grendon is described in court as a car dealer and this relates to a search of his home in 2022 when this sum of money was found in various envelopes basically in the wardrobe of the home he was arrested and held in a Garda station for a considerable period of time, over 36 hours.
And how he behaved in the Garda station is quite interesting. We heard the details in the court. He pretty much, you know, keeps silent other than answering a few questions. And to take ownership of the cash, although he says it's legit, he gets it from car dealing, but it has nothing to do with his wife and children.
Yeah. So he spends the quarter that took Brendan 36 hours and a night in the Garda station for him eventually to reply, yeah, when asked the question of whether the cash was legitimate. I mean, it must be frustrating for everybody involved in those 36 hours of questioning. It's a skill, isn't it? It's a skill on both sides.
Being a parent of a teenager and only getting the response, yeah, after 36 hours would be tough. But eventually, yeah, he did reply when asked, like, why did it take you so long to say yeah? He said, he replied that he likes staying in a garbage station. Yeah. So, well, but, you know, fair enough. We all have our preferences.
So his home is in Rowla Park in Clondalkin. Yeah. And he actually, Grendon actually ultimately, who's 48, pleaded guilty to this charge of failing to remit income tax payable.
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Chapter 2: How did Gardaí discover the cash in Grendon's home?
Because Grendon insisted that this was income, that the money came from the sale of cars. He was asked about a dog grooming business, which he said he knew nothing about, but that this money had pretty much come from
Buying and selling second-hand cars. Yeah, and buying and selling, he says specifically, it could only be from cars and it's from me shipping cars. That's it. And it was put to him again that his explanation was not true and the guards believed the cash to be the proceeds of crime and that... and this is a quote, you are a main player in an organised crime group, but Grendon denied this.
And he spoke about being in the car business for 13 years, which is true. And he admitted, or he spoke about having a big bill with revenue of over a million. But he insisted he'd been dealing cars and he seems to have had... He has currently a big bill with revenue of over a million. He said he had a revenue with one million, including penalties that he was trying to resolve at this moment.
Right. But he said he was stealing cars for cash and he produced a letter saying, outlining that he was director of a company and the company was in difficulties. Okay.
Now, during the sentence hearing, Detective Garda Liam Eniston said that the home was searched on January the 19th of 2022 and he and his partner were in the house at the time. During the search of his bedroom, The Gardaí found eight white envelopes in a wardrobe and they contained sums of cash divided into smaller denominations and a small bundle of unwrapped cash was also found.
As you said, he insisted that the cash could be from cars and did not belong to his wife or his children. So he was the only one arrested and interviewed in relation to it.
Yeah, he took that responsibility. Now, he had a report from his accountant. He basically said because the company was in difficulties and had been located as well in the North and in the UK, and that because there was an issue with the tax authorities in the UK, Due to the late filing of a deadline, the company was basically dissolved.
He only dealt in cash and that was his explanation for all of these... Envelopes of money.
Now he has the court heard 24 previous convictions. Mostly for road traffic offences, 18 of them are road traffic and one is for assault causing harm, one for the possession of drugs for sale and supply, but that dates back to 2001 and he received a six year sentence for that. His most recent non-driving related offence dates back over 20 years, which is...
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Chapter 3: What claims did Grendon make about the source of his cash?
So the actual value of the drugs, which was agreed on between the prosecution and defence eventually, was £10,470,833.33. And that was for – it was 3,750,833 of cannabis and 6,720,000 pounds worth of cocaine. The benefit figure for Thomas, with all the other assets involved, we agreed on – just over 12 million of benefit from his criminality.
And we started off somewhere around 15, 16 million, so we've come down about 4 million. And the majority of that is the difference in the value of the drugs. Knowing the significance of him, it was a really great result to get him convicted and now to get the confiscation order against him as well and have that benefit hanging over him.
Officers who went through the rows of designer gear in Bomber's gated mansion were astonished at the sheer scale of luxury goods. The drug proceeds had been splurged on luxury and security in almost equal measure. The place was sealed, reinforced doors, bulletproof glass and cameras covering every approach. Inside was a display of wealth that would rival that of Imelda Marcos.
Money was lavished on Montclair jackets, a shoe collection worthy of a Saudi princess, and a watch collection fit for a Premier League dressing room. The list goes on. 30 pairs of identical Armani jeans, Gucci labels, a collection of handbags that a Kardashian would be proud of.
This was how the cartel's profits were laundered, through spending sprees and rolls of cash handed across the shop counters in Harrods. The definition of ill-gotten gains was hanging in wardrobes in his luxury mansion in Tamworth. Cartel members know the risk of peddling drugs across international borders.
But when officers start rifling through their six-figure wardrobes, confiscating their luxury watches and handbag collections, it does hit a nerve.
A lot of criminals are quite happy, you know, getting imprisoned for the crime is part of the job. But when you actually say, now we're going to take all your assets, that's when it gets personal because that's the reason they're committing crime is for their lifestyle. That is their job. And we are then taking it all away or getting an order to take it away.
So that's when it can get quite personal.
The court's inventory of Bomber's lavish spending gave an inkling into just how far removed he'd become from the day-to-day drug trade. He oversaw the delegation of smuggling routes of finance and of enforcement to trusted lieutenants. The proceedings in Ipswich Crown Court didn't just mark the fall of Thomas Bommer Cavanagh's personal empire. They also signal something far bigger.
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