Photo fit: Ross Browning and his family entered for the RTE show
RTE had to dump footage from a top reality show when they realised that Kinahan lieutenant Ross Browning and members of his family were contestants.
The Brownings were dumped from Ireland’s Fittest Family when station chiefs were tipped off that Ross was facing charges relating to a false passport and that his mother Julie Conway Browning was before a court for sending a lewd Valentine’s card, a g-string and a bullet to a garda.
RTE had to cut the family out of the show after a last-minute decision to axe them from the series for fears of legal complications in their trials.
Superfit Ross Browning used his mother’s maiden name when he entered the show, which sees 12 families pitted against one another in a fitness competition.
The health food fanatic and vegan was hoping to use his incredible muscle to help his family win the €15,000 cash prize. His mother Julie is also a fitness fan and was thrilled to get a place on the show.
When a garda spotted him in a T-shirt bearing the show’s logo, RTE were alerted to the fact that he was before the courts at the time.
Last week Browning walked free from court after a judge decided there was not enough evidence to convict him on a fake passport charge.
The 31-year-old was facing charges relating to a false passport that gardai found in his bedroom in 2013.
But Judge Pauline Codd directed the jury to find him not guilty due to a lack of evidence. A Spanish cop who was due to give evidence had failed to do so.
Browning has been part of the Kinahan Cartel for years. The gym boss turned boxing promoter was behind a white-collar charity boxing event two years ago in Dublin dubbed the ‘Valentine’s Massacre’.
He was one of those arrested in 2010 by cops working with Spanish police as part of Operation Shovel – a multi-agency offensive against the Kinahan gang.
He had lived in Spain for several years and a Spanish magistrate said that a company, which Browning was director of, was being probed as part of the investigation.
Browning’s passport was seized and was only given back to him two years later.
Once RTE bosses were alerted to Browning’s entry in their Fittest Family show, they realised that both he and his mother were before the courts. They were concerned that their appearance on the show might complicate the legal proceedings and took the decision to axe them.
Weeks later Julie was brought before the District Court accused of lying to GSOC in a case involving a lewd Valentine’s card, a g-string and a bullet sent to a garda. The granny was fined €500 after claiming she did not put a bullet in the envelope.