VIDEO: Quinn suspects search was a 'fishing expedition'

Gardaí searched Ballyconnell home.

Sean Quinn insists he doesn't know why the gardaí searched his Ballyconnell home, and branded it a “fishing expedition”.

Gardaí from Cavan/ Monaghan Garda Division were seen removing numerous items after concluding a search which lasted over two hours. They had secured a warrant from a district court judge to permit them to search Mr Quinn's house.

Speaking to BBC, Mr Quinn suggested gardaí were ambiguous over the precise reasons behind their attendance at his home.

"They said it was coercion, deception, harassment - stuff like that," Mr Quinn said.

"So I asked them who was I harassing, this that and the other and they said: 'Look we can't tell you that. We just have to do our investigation but that's what we're here for.'

"They never mentioned anything about criminality. Unless harassment is criminality, they never mentioned anything like that at all."

As the search proceeded yesterday morning, Gardaí responded to a press query from The Anglo-Celt outlining they were “carrying out an ongoing criminal investigation into alleged criminal activity in Cavan and wider border region”.

In his interview with BBC reporter Julian Fowler, Mr Quinn said he then told the gardaí: "It's just a fishing expedition is all I can see because you can't tell me why you're here.

"So they said we'll do the investigation and report back. So they took my phone, they took my diary and they took big boxes of stuff and went off with it."