Wife of murdered loyalist pays ASA debt

The ex-wife of a murdered loyalist paramilitary has sold her home to pay £35,000 to the Assets Recovery Agency.

The money paid to the agency after the sale of the house was in addition to £200,000 already recovered by the agency from the estate of Stephen Warnock, 35, who was shot dead in Newtownards in 2002 during the loyalist feud.

It has been reported that the ASA gained evidence that the proceeds of Warnock's alleged criminal conduct had enabled his wife to buy a house.

The ARA said that it had reason to believe that Warnock had gained the money from the large scale drug trafficking, which he had been engaged in prior to his death. The Agency said he had become a major supplier of both cannabis and ecstasy.

Mrs Warnock settled her case with the ARA in February at the High Court in Belfast when she agreed to pay the agency the £35,000.

The agency have today revealed that they have received a cheque from Mrs Warnock's solicitor and the case is now over.

ARA Deputy Director Alan McQuillan said: "Accepting money as a gift from those who have obtained it by criminal means is a risky business."

He concluded by saying that the Agency has been set up to go after such money and that they will do that to the best of their ability.

(EF/SP)