The getaway driver in a 1999 bank robbery has been jailed for three years and three months by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Noel Kinsella, St Anthony's Road, Rialto, pleaded guilty to being the driver of the getaway car used in the TSB robbery on Thomas Street on May 4th, 1999. He then fled to England.
Kinsella also pleaded guilty to spitting blood at a garda on November 28th, 2001.
He pleaded guilty also to robbing garages in Blackrock, Ranelagh and Clonskeagh on dates from March 18th to May 3rd, 1999, to stealing a car and to an attempted robbery of the Milltown Pharmacy on April 15th, 1999.
Sgt Joseph Crowe said Kinsella was on bail when he committed the offences after March. He fled to England after failing to appear at Dún Laoghaire District Court on May 25th, 1999.
Sgt Crowe said Kinsella had been instructed by the other men involved in the TSB robbery to pull into Francis Street and wait for them.He was under the impression they were going to rob a grocery store, but they went into the bank with a variety of weapons and wearing balaclavas.
They got away with €22,850 (£18,000) worth of foreign currency, including Spanish pesetas, US dollars and French francs.
Kinsella told Judge Elizabeth Dunne he knew it was drugs that drove him to commit the crimes and he realised he needed to kick the habit if he were to change his life for the better.