A Dublin man who set fire to a cash box containing nearly €20,000 has been jailed for three years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Glen McEnroe (39) of Cathedral View Walk, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to robbing the cash box in the Thomas Street area of Dublin city centre on December 15th, 2020.
The court heard that while McEnroe was involved in setting the cash box alight, another man had stolen it a short time earlier from a cash-in-transit van driver.
Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Melanie Greally said although McEnroe had played a very limited and specific role, it was nonetheless a planned and premeditated robbery of a very large amount of cash which had never been recovered.
Garda Kevin Carty told Eoghan Cole BL, prosecuting, that on the day in question, a cash-in-transit van driver for Brinks security had been making a delivery to a premises on Thomas Street.
The van driver took an empty cash box from the van, entered the building and came out with the box containing €19,300 in cash.
The driver told gardaí that as he was leaving the store, a man came running at him with a hammer raised over his head. The driver feared for his safety and threw the box at the man, who grabbed it and fled the scene, carrying the box on a bicycle.
Gardaí were later alerted to a cash box on fire at nearby St Kevin’s Avenue.
They found the box in a singed condition with cans of lighter fluid close by and the cash was missing. The court heard the cash box itself was worth €3,000.
Arrest
CCTV from various premises was used to identify McEnroe as he bought the gas canister, went the area where the cash box was found, and tried unsuccessfully to set it alight.
Gardaí arrested McEnroe a week later and he accepted his involvement in attempting to set fire to the cash box. He said his role had been to dispose of the box, adding that he had been threatened to do this.
Maeve Cox BL, defending, said McEnroe has 36 previous convictions, explaining that all the charges were for minor District Court matters, with this being his first time before the Circuit Court.
She said McEnroe had been ready to enter a residential drug treatment centre but his placement had fallen through.
She asked the judge to structure a sentence to allow McEnroe to continue his positive engagement with probation services and attend drug treatment when a place became available.
Judge Greally set a headline sentence of six years but gave McEnroe credit for his early plea, the very significant steps he has taken to address his drug addiction, his favourable probation report and the beneficial courses he was undertaking in custody.
McEnroe was sentenced to four years in prison with the final 12 months suspended, backdated to December 21st, 2020.
