THREE members of the staff of the Irish Permanent Building Society ran into a back office and left a lone customer to the mercy of a gunman, Dublin Circuit Civil Court was told yesterday.
Mr Noel Greer, head of customer services for the society, told Judge James Carroll that it was now company policy that, in the case of a customer being held hostage by gunmen, staff were to retire immediately to a back office.
Mr Greer said that in 1989 there had been nine armed raids in two months at the society's Drumcondra branch in Dublin. On each occasion the modus operandi had been to hold a customer hostage until money was handed over. "Raiders were continuously returning and using the same modus operandi, so the new staff policy directive was issued to all members of staff", he said.
He told Mr Donal Seligman, counsel for the society, that while armed raids continued, and customers were still taken hostage, none of the raids was successful.
"We cannot guarantee that armed raids won't take place, but the criminal fraternity learned they weren't going to get money under our new policy", Mr Greer said.
He was giving evidence in a claim for £30,000 damages by Mr Norman Wood, a company director, of Ardagh Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, who claimed he had been assaulted by armed robbers as a result of negligence by the society.
Mr Wood said that in February 1993 he was the only customer in "the Lower Kilmacud Road branch of the IPBS in Stillorgan when two gunmen burst in. One put a gun to the back of his head and shouted to staff: "Give us the fucking money or he is a dead man."
Three male members of staff behind a ceiling-high bullet-resistant screen had opened a door on their side of the counter and entered a back room. They remained inside while one raider attempted to smash the office and the other shouted: "We are serious. We are going to kill this man." Mr Wood said he was released after about four or five minutes. The staffs reappeared several minutes later when he knocked and told them the raiders had left.
Judge Carroll heard that Mr Wood suffered from sleeplessness and nightmares afterwards. In a recurring nightmare he fought off two men who were attacking him. His wife said that, in his nightmares, he had pushed and kicked her and on one occasion had tried to strangle her.
Judge Carroll said the court was being asked if the proprietor of a shop, office or bank was under a duty to protect customers from the acts of criminal third parties so as to give rise to an action in damages if he or she failed to do so.
Dismissing Mr Wood's claim, he said the task of protection, given the regrettable state of lawlessness in the country, was a very difficult one. It would be unreasonable to put this onus on ordinary people conducting business.
Judge Carroll said the current lamentable state of lawlessness had developed hand in hand with the development, and putting into practice, of extremely unwise theories regarding the control and prevention of crime.
He said the old rule of hanging everyone involved in a deadly crime, from the man who pulled the trigger or wielded the knife to the getaway driver, was a very severe rule. "It may be said to be a matter of public consideration. But, given the state in which we now live, it seems to me a very urgent one" he said.