Up to €800,000 was stolen in Dublin yesterday by a gunman who held up a crew member of a security firm's unmarked 4x4 vehicle which was delivering money to a bank in west Dublin.
It was the second major cash-in- transit robbery in the city in a week following the theft of €600,000 in Donaghmede last Tuesday.
It will give rise to serious concerns about the continued susceptibility to attack of cash deliveries despite a major overhaul of the private security sector which followed a spate of robberies in the 18 months up to mid-2005.
In the latest incident, two staff with the private security firm Chubb were delivering money to the Bank of Ireland branch at the junction of Main Street and Convent Road in Clondalkin village.
While the branch has been closed down, two ATM machines are still operational at the site.
The two-man crew delivering the money parked their beige Nissan Patrol vehicle in the car-park of the Tesco supermarket close to the bank. They brought a certain amount of money to the bank and began loading the two ATMs at 11.30am.
Twenty minutes later, one of the crew returned to the vehicle to collect more money from it.
He was held up at gunpoint and ordered into the vehicle. The gunman forced him to drive to Commons Road, a nearby cul-de-sac.
The robber then ordered him to open a safe in the back of the vehicle. When the safe was opened, the gunman ordered him to lie on the floor of the vehicle.
He was hit at least once in the face with the handle of the attacker's handgun.
The gunman took the money, which was in a holdall sports bag, from the opened safe and left the immediate vicinity on foot. Garda sources said it was unclear how the attacker then made his escape.
The Irish Times understands that the use of unmarked vehicles by cash-in-transit firms is a regular tactic.
The vehicles are used instead of armoured vans with the livery of security firms in an effort to deliver money covertly. The vehicle hijacked yesterday was fitted with a safe.
Garda sources said it complied with regulations governing the transportation of large sums of money.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said the robbery "represents a disturbing development".
He added: "I want to establish quickly and clearly the state of compliance or otherwise of the whole cash-in-transit sector with the voluntary protocols hammered out last year for secure management of significant cash deliveries in this jurisdiction."
