A SECURITY company worker who provided information to criminals who had planned to steal €1 million from a cash-in-transit van has been sentenced to three years in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
In the first case of its kind to come before the courts, Darryl Caffrey (34), Cherry Park, Rivervalley, Swords, pleaded guilty to “enhancing the ability of a criminal organisation to commit or facilitate a theft of cash from a vehicle by providing information concerning the operation of the business of Chubb Ireland Ltd” at Tesco, Shackleton Road, Celbridge, on November 2nd, 2007.
The maximum penalty available to Judge Katherine Delahunt in sentencing Caffrey, who had one conviction for drink-driving, was five years in prison.
She said that Caffrey’s information was “critical” to the criminal gang who were involved in this robbery that had been “foiled by gardaí” and that his actions represented a “serious breach of trust” to his employers.
Judge Delahunt accepted that Caffrey had been threatened by the gang but said he was also offered cash which, she said, Det Garda Éamon Keane had testified “was like a carrot” because he had been in financial difficulties.
She accepted that Caffrey had up to this been a “respectable, hard-working member of the public who had virtually never come to Garda attention”.
The judge said Caffrey’s guilty plea was valuable to the Director of Public Prosecutions considering the “level of disclosure” in the case but said there was “no question a custodial sentence” was warranted.
She suspended the last year on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for two years upon his release.
Det Garda Keane told Seán Guerin, prosecuting, that Caffrey was in regular contact with the thieves and sent them information about the routes and times of the cash van’s deliveries.
He also sent them details of when he would be in the van and where would be the best location for a robbery.
Caffrey said he was contacted by the robbers in February 2007 and told to collect a phone left in a park. He was threatened he would be in danger if he did not help them and was also promised 10 per cent of the proceeds.
Det Garda Keane told the court that Caffrey received 20 or 30 phone calls over the next several months and also had several meeting with them in person.
He admitted he texted them details at least nine times such as the van registrations and the delivery times of cash. He said he had financial problems at the time and did not know if he would see the money promised to him.
Det Garda Keane said he and his colleagues set up a surveillance operation in Ballymun after receiving a confidential tip-off. They followed a car as it drove to the Chubb offices in Sandyford industrial estate.
They observed the car begin to follow a Chubb security van containing Caffrey as a passenger. The van drove to Tesco’s in Celbridge as the car followed. After Caffrey and the driver got out of the van to deliver the cash, several men exited the car and attempted to open the van with a key.
Gardaí moved in and arrested the men and when Caffrey got back to the van he was also detained. He was taken to Lucan Garda station where he made full admissions in interview.
Seán Gillane, defending, said Caffrey was drawn into the robbery by “a mixture of threat and temptation. Mr Gillane said Caffrey’s early guilty plea was highly beneficial to the State as a trial would mean having to provide a book of evidence more than 600 pages long.