A man who stole €318,000 from a Dublin bank employee after a kidnapping bluff, has been jailed for four years.
Tony Quinn (30), of Park View, Park Close, Ballymun, pleaded guilty yesterday to theft of €318,000 at Permanent TSB, Phibsboro on September 22nd, 2009.
Gardaí arrested him after he had collected the bag of cash from a railway line, near Broombridge railway station.
In Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Det Sgt Robert O’Reilly revealed a Permanent TSB staff member had taken the money from her Phibsboro branch with permission after she’d been made to believe a gang had kidnapped her partner.
The detective told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that two ESB employees working on cables in the station area grew suspicious when they noticed a woman heave a large leather bag over a fence. They phoned emergency services when they saw Quinn retrieve it.
Det Sgt O’Reilly said he had already dispatched unmarked Garda cars to the area, and had arrested Quinn as he ran off with the bag.
Det Sgt O’Reilly told Mr McGinn the bank employee had arrived at her branch in a “hysterical state” asking to speak with the assistant manager so she could get €400,000 required for her partner’s safe release.
The criminals behind the operation phoned the woman while the assistant manager negotiated with the bank’s head office, and told her to drop the money near Broombridge railway station.
The woman stayed in the area until she saw Quinn retrieve the bag. Det Sgt O’Reilly said Quinn had been sweating and out of breath as he ran from the scene with the bag, and told arresting officers he had been forced to collect the cash over a drug debt. He co-operated with gardaí and later admitted there had been no kidnapping.
Felix McEnroy, defending, said his client had been a “serious drug addict” at the time of the offence. He submitted to Judge Martin Nolan that his client should be treated as a first-time offender because of his previous clean record.