Belgian prosecutors have demanded that a major criminal and his brother who had close links to notorious crimelord Cyril ‘Dublin Jimmy’ McGuinness be sentenced to five years in jail after they were tried in their absence at a court in the city of Veurne.
The duo from Co Monaghan are among five people from Ireland and the UK who are accused of a spate of thefts of cranes and trailers in west Flanders between September 2016 to Feb 2018.
Prosecutors alleged that they committed a total of twelve offences in which various types of cranes, excavators and trailers were stolen before being smuggled to the UK.