A man detained since last Friday in connection with the taking hostage last week of a bank official and his family in north Co Dublin - and the subsequent escape of a gang with €550,000 - was refused bail yesterday afternoon.
However, Patrick Albert Byrne, of Ballymakenny Road, Drogheda, Co Louth, was expected to be released from custody later last night as the period for his detention was due to expire.
A Garda Chief Supt told Mr Justice Liam McKechnie yesterday that gardaí were opposed to the granting of bail to Mr Byrne because they believed he would interfere with evidence and might also flee the country.
When Mr Byrne was arrested on Friday night last he was in a taxi and the taxi driver had told gardaí he was en route to the airport, Det Chief Supt Noel White said.
Earlier, Chief Supt White told the High Court that he was involved in the investigation of serious crime relating to a number of armed and masked men entering the home of a family in Castlefarm in Swords on January 31st, holding them hostage and taking them to another location under threat of firearms.
The bank official was given directions to go the following day to his place of work and put cash in a holdall and was told his family would be harmed if he did not do so, Chief Supt White said. He had done this and the money was handed over. The man's family were also later found and released.
Chief Supt White said Mr Byrne was later arrested on suspicion of having information relating to the unlawful possession of firearms.
