Man jailed for part in taxi robbery
A Mayo man whose companion used a garrote on a taxi driver when they robbed him at a halting site has been jailed for three years by Judge Rory Maccabe at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Michael Conroy (aged 20), originally from Ballinrobe, and was also jailed for driving the getaway car from a mugging which was then halted after a chase by gardaí.
Judge MacCabe noted Conroy had problems with alcohol and drugs and said he found it hard to accept the attack on the taxi driver was unplanned as was claimed to gardaí.
"You have an appalling criminal record without any significant period free from conviction. There is little in your past to offer any hope for the future," he told Conroy who has 19 previous convictions.
Judge MacCabe sentenced him to three years for the taxi driver robbery, suspending the last 18 months, and to 18 months to run consecutively for the car theft and mugging which he was committed while on bail.
Conroy, with an address at Carrigmore Cresent, Tallaght pleaded guilty to robbery of €340 at St Maelruans Halting Site, Tallaght on January 23 2006, car theft in Clondalkin on December 30 2006 and robbery of a handbag in Stillorgan on the same date.
Defence counsel, Mr Bernard Condon BL, said Conroy regularly cut himself and had tried to commit suicide several times due to his serious psychological problems from his drink and drug addictions.
Counsel said the family was planning on moving back to Mayo as they felt Dublin hasn’t been good for him.
Garda Michael Deegan told prosecuting council, Ms Geraldine Small BL, that Conroy and another man hailed a taxi on the Tallaght by-pass to go to the halting site.
When Conroy asked how much it was the other man who was sitting behind the driver wrapped a strap around his neck and pulled it tightly around him as Conroy grabbed the money bag with his night’s takings of €340 from the victim’s waist before they both fled.
Gda Deegan said the victim passed out and when he regained consciousness he drove out and met a garda car which took him to hospital where he was treated for cuts and bruises.
Conroy was arrested shortly afterwards and admitted his part in the incident. He said it was an unplanned attack and he had since spent all the money.
Gda Deegan agreed with defence counsel, Mr John Peart SC, that Conroy played a minor role in the incident and had no prior knowledge of what his accomplice had planned.
Garda Patrick Sexton said on December 13 2006 a woman was walking towards Stillorgan village when a man armed with a knife came up behind her and grabbed her handbag. She clung to the bag and the man swung a blow at her which she dodged.
She eventually let go of the bag and the man ran to a waiting car been driven by Conroy. Before entering the car he stopped and ran back to pick up the knife he had dropped during the scuffle.
Gda Sexton said he was in a patrol car when he saw a car containing Conroy with his brother Patrick in the passenger seat drive past with one of its windows broken.
He followed it as it drove up the Sandyford Road, breaking red lights. When he put on his sirens Patrick Conroy turned around and waved at him before the car sped off.
Several garda cars joined the chase as Conroy drove through red lights and narrowly avoided a collision at a roundabout. It was eventually brought to a halt when it turned the wrong way up a one-way street.
