A MONEY-LAUNDERING pal of the late model Katy French has been admitted to hospital with "serious stress" after some of the country's most-dangerous villains came after him demanding €2m.

Dodgy car dealer Lee Cullen has been admitted to hospital for the sec-ond time in three months after being repeatedly visited by feared gang enforcer Paul Rice. The Tallaght-based hard man has been growing increasingly menacing because Cullen has no way of repaying the €500,000 he was given to launder on behalf of drug barons Christy Kinahan and Gerard 'Hatchet' Kavanagh.

Cullen was given the drugs money to invest in property six years ago and promised to return €1m, accord-ing tu sources. However, he has lost a fortune in the property downturn and six months ago he started receiving vis-its from Rice, who previously worked as muscle for Cullen himself.

Whacked

Rice said that Kavanagh and Kinahan were short of money and demanded that Cullen pay up in full. However, Cullen has no way to pay back what he owes and following Rice's latest visit three weeks ago, he now fears that Kavanagh will run out of patience and have him whacked. Cullen was regarded as an expert money launderer and also owes at least another Elm to other Dublin criminals.

Five months ago he received a serious beating because he could not pay a small-time dealer what he owes. Cullen is this weekend receiving medical attention and is said to be on the brink of a breakdown. He was only out of hospital a matter of weeks after a previous stress-related incident when he became ill again.Lee Cullen, who owned Exclusive Cars in Saggart, Co Dublin, lived the high life during the Celtic Tiger years. He mingled with the rich and famous and was a good friend of Katy French. He loaned the tragic model the €100,000 Range Rover she drove on the night she suffered a cocaine-, induced heart attack in Kieran.

RAID:

Cops search Cullen motors Ducie's house in Kilmessan, Co Meath. The Criminal Assets Bureau launched a major investigation into Cullen's dodgy car business in 2006, which led to him paying an incredi-ble €2.1m. Following a Sunday World expose on his activities after the CAB raids, Cullen ran to the High Court seek-ing to gag us for revealing he was at the centre of a €220,000 VRT fraud. Although Cullen claimed to be a legitimate businessman, the court heard how he had links to serious criminals, including Slzane Lyons, fraud-ster Brian Healy and drug dealers Kavanagh and Rice. Mr Justice Peter Charleton said that Cullen's evi-dence in relation to CAB was incredible.

He added that if Cullen tried to take a libel action against us, then a jury could agree that sto-ries about Isis links with money laundering and dubious characters were completely justified. Like many Celtic Tiger cubs, Cullen over-stretched himself and used investments given to him by major gangsters to borrow money to invest in a variety of apartment schemes. He specialised in the sale of huge-ly expensive motors and still owns dozens of valuable cars. Last year we revealed how the 'Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan and Gerard 'Hatchet' Kavanagh were desperately short of money and had ordered Freddie Thompson and Paul Rice to start collecting everything that was owed to them.

Gangsters Rice was told in no uncertain terms to make sure that Cullen set-tled his tab and has been putting increasing pressure on Lee Cullen. Ironically, Rice was one of Cullen's closest friends and was put to work by Cullen, intimi-dating people who owed him money. Shortly after the CAB raids in late 2007, Cullen was charged with 21 counts of fraud and denied for years that he was guilty. However, last November he filially pleaded guilty to defrauding the State of E220,000. He will be sentenced in July.