€2.7m Brinks van heist a complete joke, say gardaí

GARDAÍ last night described as a “complete joke” yesterday’s heist in which security guards transporting €2.7 million were robbed when they stopped off for coffee.

Garda bosses, along with Justice Minister Michael McDowell, were further outraged when they heard security staff at Brinks Allied regularly stopped at a service station for coffee while delivering cash.

Mr McDowell and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy are expected to have strong words with Brinks Allied management and other security company representatives today at an emergency meeting called by the minister. Sources in the cash-in-transit industry said it was “much too simple to single out one party when apportioning blame”.

They said the main problem was the “poor level” of garda escorts and said only around one-in-10 deliveries received escorts. The sources said while yesterday’s van had a scheduled garda escort the escort was only due to begin in the city centre, leaving the van exposed while transiting from the Brinks depot in Clonshaugh, north Dublin.

The security van left the Brinks depot shortly after 7am before stopping at the Maxol Station in Artane. Gardaí said the driver of the van got out to buy takeaway coffees for himself and his two colleagues and, while returning, was confronted by a masked armed man. He was ordered into the van and told to drive to a nearby sports ground in Killester.

“It’s a complete joke, and from all accounts it’s regular enough that they drop into the station for coffee,” said a garda source. “While the raid was organised, you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist.”

Supt Noel McLaughlin, who is leading the investigating, with the support of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said a white transit van followed the security van to the sports ground. He said there were two, maybe three, raiders, aged between 25 and 30, with Dublin accents.

“The indications are that the vehicle in question had a large sum of money in it and that it went into a service station for a purpose which had nothing to do with the delivery or receipt of money and that one of the staff got out of the vehicle and, I understand, was purchasing coffee and that the raid took place at that point. That is something that is just not acceptable in this day,” Mr McDowell said

Kevin McMahon, secretary of SIPTU’s security branch, accepted there was a “need for higher professional standards and training” of employees, but said Mr McDowell’s comments were one-sided. He said the Government had failed to provide the necessary resources to combat armed gangs. The “big question” was why there was not an escort from the time the van left the base at Clonshaugh.

Sources in cash-in-transit companies said the banks were to blame as they had refused to invest in new systems, which would remove direct access to cash from security guards.

A Brinks spokesman would not comment until a full investigation was carried out.