Cash escorts rely on ‘luck of God’

IT is only by the ‘luck of God’ garda lives have not been lost protecting cash escorts, garda representatives said yesterday.

The representatives said elite officers charged with escorting cash deliveries do not have bullet-proof vests and have not had them for years.

A Garda Representative Association (GRA) official said they had called for bullet proof vests for members of the Special Detective Unit (SDU) for more than a year.

The call comes as armed attacks on security firms delivering cash to ATMs and banks jumped to 38 in the first six months of this year, compared to 33 for the same period last year.

“Members of the SDU going out on armed escort with Brinks or Securicor haven’t got bullet proof vests,” said Aonghus Maloney, the SDU delegate and member of the GRA central executive committee said.

“It is only the luck of God that no one has been seriously injured or killed in recent years. But senior officers have warned recently that someone could.”

Last weekend, Chief Supt Martin Donnellan of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation warned someone could be killed if armed raids on cash deliveries continued.

Mr Maloney said it has been a long-running issue for members of the Special Task Force (STF), the section of the SDU that carries out escort duties.

“The STF in escorting money is most likely to confront armed robbers. There used to be vests 10-15 years ago. I have not seen one for the last five years.”

He said the Emergency Response Unit - another elite armed unit - does have bullet proof vests as do detectives in other parts of the country that periodically do escorts.

Mr Maloney said members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation - who accompany the STF on An Post cash deliveries - also had bullet proof jackets.

He said they had raised the matter internally with garda management within the SDU.

A spokesman for Garda management said bullet proof vests “are and were available to members on duty who require them in the SDU”.

He said that management had recently acquired additional stocks of bullet proof vests.