'Most polite' thief jailed for four years
A man described as "Dublin’s politest bank robber" who took more than €50,000 from various banks over a six-month period when in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction has been jailed for four years by Judge Desmond Hogan.
John O’Hegarty (aged 33), of Waterloo Road, Ballsbridge has a diploma in journalism, a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and a Masters degree in psycho-analytic studies from Trinity College Dublin and became heavily addicted to crack cocaine after a man he knocked down with his bicycle died.
O’Hegarty pleaded guilty to 13 counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery, and 14 counts of possessing an imitation firearm between March 7, 2004 and October 14, 2004 at various banks in the Ballsbridge, Ranelagh and Stillorgan areas.
He also pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two further counts of robbery at a newsagents in Kilmacud and at the National Irish Bank in Stillorgan on December 5 and December 10, 2004 respectively.
Judge Hogan sentenced O’Hegarty to two years concurrently for each robbery committed between March and October 2004, and for a further two years consecutively for the two latter robberies.
Considering his personal circumstances, the support he has from his family and the efforts he is making to overcome his drug addiction, Judge Hogan suspended the final 18 months of the latter two years. The sentence was backdated to December 12, 2004 when he was taken into custody.
Mr Remy Farrell BL, defending, told Judge Hogan that O’Hegarty was running his own courier business until the accident on September 23, 2003.
While cycling on the wrong side of a road, he hit a pedestrian who fell down on the ground but refused help from O’Hegarty to summon an ambulance and seemed generally all right. However, it transpired, the pedestrian died later that evening, which led to intense and adverse media coverage of couriers, Mr Farrell said.
The adverse publicity and the guilt he felt affected O’Hegarty greatly and his addiction to drugs burgeoned. Mr Farrell said O’Hegarty was a reminder that neither education nor a privileged background could insulate us from the ravages of drug addiction.
Garda Paul Moody told Mr Bernard Condon BL, prosecuting, that O’Hegarty entered the banks in various guises - sometimes as a builder and other times as a courier - and would join the queue as a normal customer.
He always had a newspaper folded over his hand under which the imitation gun was concealed.
When it was his turn at the counter he showed the gun to the teller and demanded money. He often had a bag with him to put the money into.
Garda Moody said O’Hegarty did not use the usual "foul or abusive language" heard at bank robberies but would tell the clerk to put the money into a bag. Sometimes he never spoke a word, just showed the gun and gave his bag to the teller.
O’Hegarty was arrested on October 14, 2004 outside the Ulster Bank in Ranelagh as he was leaving with €1,960 he had stolen in the same manner.
Garda Moody agreed with Mr Farrell that O’Hegarty was extremely co-operative after his arrest, even going to the trouble of voluntarily bringing into the garda station materials such as his bag he had used in the robberies.
Two months later, however, his addiction relapsed and he raided the NIB in Stillorgan and the newsagents in Kilmacud in a similar manner before being re-arrested and charged.
