LAND at Carrickmines in south Dublin which remains frozen by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is generating money for its owners, even though the company is the subject of planning corruption allegations.

Owned by Jackson Way Properties, a British registered firm, the 106 acres is being used to grow cereal crops, despite the fact that a High Court order to freeze it was secured by CAB in 2006. The bureau believes the value of 17 acres of the land increased from €7.9m to €61m when it was rezoned in the 1990s.

It is being tilled by contractors hired by James Kennedy, a former amusement arcade owner and businessman, who has been investigated by the planning tribunal and CAB. Kennedy is overseeing the farming enterprise from his home on the Isle of Man.

It is not known if he has applied for funds under the single farm payment scheme administered by the European Union. Farmers and landowners are entitled to claim financial assistance for land sown with wheat, barley, oats, maize, linseed, flax or hemp. The company would be entitled to claim about €14,500 of EU subsidies.

“They would be entitled to claim a payment, but they are not likely to be making much money from cereal crops at the moment. The price that merchants are willing to pay has fallen considerably,” said one farming expert.

The change in the land’s usage may be linked to a recent application by the company to have it rezoned. In August, Jackson Way Properties applied to have the land’s usage changed in the review of the Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown county development plan.

The submission was lodged by Kiaran O’Malley and Co, a planning consultant, on behalf of the company. It has asked that the land be rezoned for economic development and employment use, which would allow housing.

“The decision to actively farm the land may be an attempt by Kennedy to show he is using it, that it is not just a landbank that he is holding,” said a planning source.

Kennedy was appointed a director of Jackson Way Properties last February. The other director is Alan Holland, a British property agent, who previously described himself as the sole shareholder and director of the company.

Jackson Way Properties first surfaced at the planning tribunal over allegations that it hired Frank Dunlop, the political lobbyist, to pay county councillors for their votes to rezone part of the land.

The tribunal discovered that the 106-acre site was first sold in the 1980s to Kennedy with ownership vested in Paisley Park, an offshore company. Paisley Park was liquidated in 1994 and ownership of the land was transferred to Jackson Way Properties.

The tribunal later referred to the change of ownership as “an elaborate charade”, and said that the owners of Jackson Way had “gone to elaborate lengths to disguise their identities”.

The bureau began investigating Kennedy after the company was linked to Liam Lawlor, the former Fianna Fail TD who was killed in a car crash in Moscow in 2005.

In court proceedings, bureau officials said 17 acres of Jackson Way lands were rezoned from agricultural to industrial at a special meeting of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown county council in December 1997, resulting in a €53m increase in the value of the lands.

The bureau is currently examining the planning application that has been submitted to the council.

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