AN EMPLOYEE from the Motor Tax Office is the subject of a garda investigation after illegally checking car registrations on behalf of murdered crime boss Eamon 'The Don' Dunne.

The Sunday Tribune understands that the employee, who has been suspended from work, has given a full statement to detectives about how he regularly checked car registrations on behalf of the gang boss in return for money.

When the employee entered a person's car registration into the system, the owner of the vehicle's name and address came up, which he then passed on to Dunne.

Thirty-four-year-old Dunne was shot several times as he sat in a pub in Cabra, Dublin, on 23 April. On his person, gardaí recovered several mobile phones.

As part of the murder investigation, detectives have been tracking down who he was in contact with. One person who Dunne was regularly in touch with was an employee from the Motor Tax Office.

Several weeks ago, gardaí interviewed this man. It is understood he admitted he was checking car registrations for Dunne in return for money.

Dunne was a highly paranoid criminal and it is believed some of the car registrations he was having checked were of people who he believed were following him, his enemies and possibly members of An Garda Síochána.

Since this individual has made a full admission to gardaí, he is expected to face charges in relation to the illegal activity he was carrying out on behalf of Dunne.

It is a major breach of the Data Protection Act to pass on private citizens' personal details to a third party. The worker may also face more serious charges.

It is understood the employee from the Motor Tax Office was suspended from work several weeks ago. When contacted, a spokeswoman for Dublin City Council, which is responsible for the Motor Tax Office, said: "Dublin City Council has no comment to make on this."

Detectives probing the gangland murder of Dunne believe one of his closest associates gave a signal to the gunmen when they entered the pub by leaning down for several seconds to tie his shoelace.

This man was one of Dunne's key lieutenants in his Finglas gang and is from Dublin's northside. Two men and a woman were arrested last week in relation to Dunne's murder. The woman has since been released without charge.

The two men arrested are aligned to an organised crime gang operating in the north inner city run by two local criminals, one of whom is a sex offender. The pair are linked to Christy Kinahan's international drug cartel in Spain and detectives are probing whether Kinahan ordered Dunne's murder.