A judge described as "an act of utter stupidity" the decision of a man to get involved in a highly organised armed raid on a large computer plant in Dundalk, and jailed him for 2½ years.
Gerard Stewart (40), a father of three with addresses in Aghameen Park and Aisling Park, Dundalk, was one of a number of men who tried to steal more than €500,000 worth of computer parts from the Quantum Peripherals Products Ltd plant in Dundalk early on April 21st, 2001.
As a result of confidential information gardaí in Dundalk knew the raid was going to take place and foiled the gang as they attempted to get away.
Stewart had been driving the truck carrying the stolen goods and was arrested at the scene. He pleaded guilty to a single count of robbing snap servers and hard disk drives worth €572,141.
The court heard he was in debt and was offered €2,000 if he got involved in the crime. He helped a key figure in the gang to locate the truck and a number of other vehicles that were to be used on the night in question.
The court heard that guns were pointed at the two security men on duty but gardaí accepted Stewart was not involved in that and was not aware that any firearms were to be used.
He had driven the lorry into a loading bay at the rear of the plant and was given a radio scanner to monitor the Garda frequency. When the 13 pallets were loaded he set off to drive to a rendezvous point in Co Meath but was blocked by gardaí as he attempted to leave the industrial estate in Dundalk.
Judge Raymond Groarke said at a time when gardaí were the subject of adverse comment "it is only proper that I acknowledge and recognise the very considerable professional policing skills brought to play by then in the way they dealt with this crime."
Then sentencing Stewart he said he was "a foot soldier, a small cog in the operation but none the less an important one". He jailed him for 2½ years.