Man accused of false imprisonment and robbery of Brinks Allied worker
20/06/2012 - 18:32:51A man has gone on trial charged with a false imprisonment and robbery of a Brinks Allied worker which the prosecution claim has the accused’s “fingerprints both literally and figuratively all over it”.
Stefan Saunders (aged 34) of Hazelbury Park, Blanchardstown has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbing €134,000 from Reginald Shannon on January 4, 2010 and to falsely imprisoning him, Angela Shannon and a child at O’Connell Gardens, Bath Avenue, Dublin 4, on the same date.
The jury were told that Mr Shannon, a cash in transit van driver for Brinks Allied, was allegedly approached by armed man while out walking his dog one morning before work.
He was then escorted back to his family home where his mother and a child were still sleeping.
Mr Shannon was then forced to drive a Renault Kangoo around Dublin and ultimately take cash from colleagues on O’Connell Street, while his mother and the child were driven around the south Dublin area in a Toyota Verso.
They were released after Mr Shannon, under instruction, left the Kangoo with the cash in it at the Skylon Hotel in Drumcondra.
Remy Farrell SC, prosecuting, told the jury it was the State’s case that Saunders’s fingerprints and DNA were later found in an Opel Combo van which he said was used as surveillance vehicle to “scope out the Shannon family’s daily routine” in November 2009.
He said his fingerprints were found on the driver’s door window and on a notebook, which counsel said was “in substance a surveillance log” in relation to the family.
The prosecution also claim that Saunders’s DNA was found on an 'Uncle Buck' DVD found in the back of the Opel.
Mr Farrell said Mr Saunders’s DNA was also recovered from a Renault Kangoo which the State claim the raiders forced Mr Shannon to drive that day before he was instructed to approach his Brinks Allied colleagues and get the cash from them.
Counsel said Mr Saunders’s DNA was found on ratchet straps which allegedly tied Mr Shannon to the driver’s seat of the Kangoo and also on the headrest of the passenger seat.
“It is the prosecution’s case that the extent of DNA and fingerprints found on both vehicles, tied, in a definitive fashion, Mr Saunders to the crime,” Mr Farrell said before he added: “the silent witnesses, the silent evidence will speak the loudest” in the case.
Counsel advised the jury they will hear evidence that this crime was “a very real plan to carry out a very serious kidnap” and that “Mr Saunders is one of those people intimately involved in both the planning and perhaps the execution of the robbery”.
Mr Farrell said it is the State’s case that this was a situation of “joint enterprise” and Mr Saunders may not necessarily have been one of the raiders on the day.
The trial continues before Judge Patricia Ryan and a jury of six men and six women and is expected to last three weeks.
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