Manager beaten in €20,000 service station raid

A GANG believed to be behind the theft of over €5 million worth of cigarettes struck again yesterday when they attacked the manager of a petrol station with iron bars and hammers.

Stephen Nolan, aged 44, was opening the petrol station shortly after 6am when they attacked him: “They burst in shouting and wielding hammers and an iron bar. I was hauled into a back room where they hit me with a hammer and gave me a few head butts into the face. They broke one of my fingers with the hammer.”

He said that a woman who came on the scene was also hauled into the back room by the three masked raiders: “She was frightened out of her life.”