Kinahan crime family boss who had fortified mansion in Staffordshire ordered to pay up more than £1 million
The head of a UK-based crime family has been ordered to pay back more than £1 million within three months or face another 12 years in jail.
Thomas Kavanagh, aged 57 and of Sutton Road, Tamworth, was jailed for 21 years in March 2022 for orchestrating the importation of multi-million-pound drug shipments worth around £30m UK street value.
Kavanagh, head of the UK branch of the notorious Kinahan crime group, was jailed following the arrest of another high-ranking member of the group, Gary Vickery, in October 2017, after National Crime Agency (NCA) officers seized 15 kilograms of cocaine and more than 220 kilograms of cannabis, which were found inside a six-tonne industrial tarmac removal machine in Dover.
Subsequent investigations showed Kavanagh was heading up the criminal enterprise, and he was arrested at Birmingham Airport as he returned from a holiday in January 2019.
Kavanagh also admitted to being involved in the illegal trafficking of firearms and money laundering.
Now, the Kinahan crime boss has been ordered to pay back £1.1m within three months, or face 12 more years in jail, following a Proceeds of Crime Act investigation (POCA) led by the NCA.
Crime boss's Tamworth mansion
It comes after NCA investigators began looking into the gang's finances and assets for seizure as part of the POCA investigation, with officers estimating that Kavanagh's criminal profits were in the region of £12.2m, but recoverable assets amounted to £1,123,096.84.
The sum of money includes his 50 per cent share of his 'fortified' family mansion in Tamworth, Staffordshire, money from the sale of a number of other properties in the UK, and a villa in Spain.
Also included in the sum were approximately £150,000 of high-end bags, clothes and accessories, which were discovered when Kavanagh's house was searched following his initial arrest in 2019.
Vickery, 43 and of Boundary Road, Solihull, was also subject to the POCA hearing and was ordered to pay back £109,312.90 within three months or face another two years in prison.
'Elaborate plan'
Kavanagh admitted to additional firearms offences and perverting the course of justice in October 2024, after NCA officers uncovered an elaborate plan that Kavanagh hoped would reduce his sentence.
The plan saw Kavanagh direct his associates, Saun Kent and Liam Byrne, to purchase firearms and ammunition and bury them, so that he could reveal the whereabouts to NCA investigators.
All three were jailed for a total of 17 years, with Kavanagh's six years to be served on top of his 21-year sentence.
Kay Mellow, head of operations HW at the National Crime Agency, said: "Thomas Kavanagh was the head of the UK’s arm of the Kinahan organised crime group, responsible for the importation and distribution of drugs and firearms, making millions of pounds in the process.
"He and his gang believed they were untouchable, but that proved to be their downfall. Kavanagh and Vickery will be behind bars for many years to come and now have to pay back more than £1 million to the state.
"We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to target, disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups, deprive them of their assets and ensure they face justice."
