Records obtained by the Sunday World reveal that a restraint has been has been filed on the title deeds barring either her or her notorious husband from cashing in on the fortified stg£1 million Tamworth property – with prosecutors expected to begin confiscation proceedings within months.
Joanne – the sister of notorious organised crime boss Liam Byrne – is the joint owner of the property which she and ‘Bomber’ bought and registered in both their names in 2005 for UK£565,000.
There is no suggestion she had any involvement in or knowledge of her husband’s criminal activities.
The Kavanagh’s Tamworth property, near Birmingham
The Sunday World has discovered that the Crown Prosecution Service – which has been readying itself ahead of a legal battle to confiscate all assets built up by ‘Bomber’ over the course of his criminal career for the past five years – went to court in 2020 and successfully obtained a freezing order on the mansion.
That freezing order was later applied to the title deeds – a copy of which was obtained by this newspaper earlier this week.
Under the sections confirming ‘Bomber’ and Joanne as the registered owners, an additional paragraph has been added.
Joanne and Thomas Kavanagh leaving their Tamworth property
It reads: “Under a restraint order made under section 41 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 on April 16, 2020 – no disposition by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered except with the consent of the Crown Prosecution Service, CPS Proceeds of Crime Teams or under a further order of the court.
It’s understood the CPS has held off on moving to seize the assets as proceeds of crime until now as a result of ongoing criminal cases against Bomber.
When anti-gangland cops raided the fortified property – which featured bullet proof window among an array of security measures – in January 2019 as part of a wider investigation to dismantle his drug empire – they also seized an Aladdin’s cave of designer goods worth more than stg£500,000.
The haul included: one hundred pairs of designer heels; 120 handbags; 36 pairs of Armani jeans; lines of Hugo Boss suits; closets full of Canada Goose and Moncler jackets; and drawers full of expensive watches and jewellery.
Thomas Kavanagh’s wife Joanne
Cops estimated that the value of the clothing and jewellery alone made it one of largest-ever seizures of personal items nabbed from a domestic home in a National Crime Agency case.
Cash in the region of stg£40,000 was also found stashed around the house, stuffed into the back of the sofa and in Moschino, Gucci and Chanel handbags.
Investigators in the UK are also sifting through receipted purchases believed to be worth hundreds of thousands and recorded on high-end designer store cards where points were saved for discounts and access to services like personal shoppers.
The battle to secure confiscation orders for the property and assets seized that day was, however, put on the back burner pending Kavanagh’s trial for drug smuggling – at the conclusion of which he was jailed for 21 years.
Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh tried to strike a deal with police
The confiscation of the assets was then hit with a further delay when fresh charges were filed against ‘Bomber’ and his brother-in-law Liam Byrne arising from the botched gun plot to manipulate a reduction in his sentence by handing over an arsenal of weapons.
But, sources now say, following ‘Bomber’ and Byrne’s guilty plea earlier this week, court proceedings to obtain confiscation orders will begin in earnest after the pair’s sentencing in October.
On Wednesday of this week, both Kinahan Cartel boss ‘Bomber’ and Byrne made a dramatic U-turn in court pleading guilty to the firearms plot he masterminded behind bars.
The court heard Kavanagh and his associates hoarded guns in a bid to act as informants and secure him a lighter sentence for drug trafficking.
‘Bomber’ (57) Byrne (43) and Shaun Kent (38) were nabbed after an investigation by the National Crime Agency.
The court heard Kavanagh, described as a kingpin of the notorious ‘Kinahan’ Cartel, is serving 21 years for orchestrating a €36m drug smuggling racket.
While on remand awaiting sentencing at Ipswich Crown Court, he plotted with Kent, Byrne and others to accumulate firearms from the UK, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Their plan was to tip off the NCA about the stash so Kavanagh could bag a reduced sentence.
Some of the guns seized by police after a tip-off by Kavanagh
Kavanagh contacted the NCA and informed them arms had been transported to the UK from Holland.
He provided a map which guided police to a farm in Northern Ireland where they unearthed two holdalls buried underground containing 11 sub-machine guns.
However, the NCA had received intel on the gang after French authorities cracked the encrypted chat EncroChat in 2020. The NCA used this information to deduce that Kavanagh was stringing them along.
The trio appeared at the Old Bailey on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to firearms charges.
Under the UK’s Firearms Act 1968, the maximum sentence for conspiracy to possess firearms or ammunition is life imprisonment.
