Former crime boss John Gilligan has received another blow in his fight to claw back Jessbrook Equestrian Centre and various properties seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in the 1990s.

The Supreme Court has refused legal aid to the convicted drug dealer and his family for a report by a forensic accountant, which they had hoped would show their properties were bought with gambling winnings.

Mr. Gilligan (62), who has been engaged in protracted legal battles with CAB since it seized all his properties in 1996, was not in court.

He has been living in the UK since he was shot at his brother's home in Clondalkin last March, just months after his release from prison.

The Gilligans are still fighting their corner despite the sale of Jessbrook late last year.

However the Supreme Court has ruled that an accountant's report on the question of whether their assets were bought with the proceeds of crime or the proceeds of gambling is inadmissible on appeal.

In a judgment unanimously backed by four of his colleagues, Mr. Justice Frank Clarke said it would be 'wholly inappropriate' to introduce new evidence on appeal that could and should have been placed before the High Court at the original hearings.

He noted that the law is designed to prevent parties from trying to mend their hand following a failed ''dry run'' in the High Court.

On that basis legal aid for an accountant's report was refused.