Man caught 'blue-handed' after cash-in-transit robbery

A Dublin father-of-two who was caught with blue dye on his hands and clothes after he robbed over €30,000 from a cash-in-transit worker has been jailed for two years.

Man caught 'blue-handed' after cash-in-transit  robbery

A Dublin father-of-two who was caught with blue dye on his hands and clothes after he robbed over €30,000 from a cash-in-transit worker has been jailed for two years.

Ian Carroll (aged 22) rang his sister’s partner, Ian Trimble (aged 25), to give him and another accomplice a lift with the cash box after the security device exploded inside, coating their clothes, hands and getaway car with blue dye.

Carroll, of Barry Drive, Finglas, told gardaí that another person was supposed to have picked them up, but that person’s vehicle ran out of fuel.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbing €30,780 at Texaco Service Station, Ballycoolin on April 25, 2012.

He has 17 previous convictions for district court offences.

Trimble, of Cappagh Avenue, Finglas, pleaded guilty to possessing €530 stolen cash which was covered in blue dye at Heathfield Estate, Rathoath Road.

He has three previous convictions for minor drugs offences and will be sentenced later for this latest offence.

Garda Graham Dillon said that the cash-in-transit worker had been picking up a cash box at the service station, when Carroll ran up with a handgun and demanded the money.

Carroll was next spotted by the owner of Cool Quay Lodge acting suspiciously with two others and trying to get rid of clothes in the car park beside Trimble’s Toyota Avensis.

The pub owner and a relative went out to confront the men but the driver started off in the car, leaving Carroll behind.

Carroll caught up with Trimble’s vehicle and jumped in, as the pub owner and his brother followed the car far enough to note its registration plates.

Gda Dillon told Garnet Orange BL, prosecuting, that he was on patrol in Finglas when he spotted a Toyota matching the witness’s description. He said there was dye in the car and on the occupants’ hands.

He said colleagues located the original Mazda getaway vehicle and blank firing pistol used in the robbery next to a barrel of water in a field near the Texaco station. The car and water were covered in dye.

Gda Dillon agreed with Bernard Condon SC, defending Carroll, that his client made full admissions in interview and revealed he had received the gun the morning of the robbery.

He agreed that Carroll said he got involved out of “stupidity” and as a way to make easy money to cover drug debts.

The father-of-two said he was to split one third of the takings between him, the Mazda driver and the man who didn’t turn up.

Gda Dillon told Judge Mary Ellen Ring that he and colleagues recovered €10,000 of the stolen cash in the boot of Trimble’s car.

The garda agreed with Michael Bowman BL, defending Trimble, that Carroll had explained that his client hadn’t known about the robbery or the cash box in the boot of his car.

Mr Condon submitted to Judge Ring that though Carroll has previous convictions, they are not serious and “one might hope his criminal career has been cut short” following this incident.

He asked the judge to take into account his client’s early guilty plea, full assistance to gardaí and the fact that this was not a well executed enterprise.

Mr Condon also pointed out that his client told gardaí that another person got into the Avensis and took the balance of the cash.

Mr Bowman submitted that Trimble, a father-of-two, had tried to leave Carrol at the side of the road at one stage during his role in the incident.

He told the judge that Trimble had worked for seven years in the construction trade before being let go in 2011 due to the economic downturn.

Counsel submitted that his client accepted he just should have left the scene instead of getting involved and accepting stolen money as compensation.

He asked the judge “not to snatch away a number of years in a young man’s life”.

Judge Ring commented that it was “surprising” to target such a security company as “children watching television could tell you that cash-in-transit use dyes in cash boxes.”

She adjourned Trimble’s sentence until June to let him tackle his cannabis abuse. The judge gave Carroll a four year sentence for the robbery, but suspended the final two years.

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