Probably the slickest beer theft in the world...

THERE will be red faces at Guinness this Christmas after a man drove a truck into the brewery’s main dispatch centre and stole 450 kegs of beer under the noses of security and staff.

Gardaí said the 180 kegs of Guinness, 180 kegs of Budweiser and 90 kegs of Carlsberg had a wholesale value of €64,000.

But sources suggested they could be worth three or four times that at retail level, indicating a final value of about €200,000.

“It wasn’t some stranger who decided to walk in, it was planned. It was a lapse in their procedure and is something we are looking at in conjunction with Guinness,” said one Garda source.

The man drove a truck into the main yard on Victoria Quay, near Heuston Station, which is the main dispatch centre for Guinness at the historic St James’s Gate site yesterday.

It appeared the man produced some paperwork at the entrance and drove up to a trailer, which had the consignment of beer already loaded.

The thief got out of his cab, hitched up the trailer, got back in and drove out onto the busy Victoria Quay, which splits in two directions, one to Kilmainham and the other, across the River Liffey, to the northside.

“There was a systems failure of some sort. We don’t know exactly what happened yet,” said the Garda source.

He said that while one man carried out the theft, he didn’t rule out the involvement of other people.

Gardaí will investigate how the man knew the system at the yard and will try and establish whether or not he had inside information from present or past employees.

Gardaí said they had no descriptions yet of the truck or the driver and were examining the camera system at the gate. It was not clear yesterday if the individual was picked up on the digital cameras.

Several hours passed before the consignment was noticed as missing, and gardaí at Kevin Street Station were alerted.

Garda sources said there were premises that would “not be slow” to buy kegs off people and not ask too many questions.

“People in the industry should be on the look-out. If kegs are being offered to clubs or premises they should know it comes from somewhere,” said a garda.

The trailer was found yesterday at Slane Hill, Co Meath.

A spokeswoman for Diageo said: “It’s unprecedented, we’ve never before had a trailer with 150 kegs illegally taken off the site.

“We’re carrying out a full investigation in conjunction with the gardaí and also our own investigation to identify how this could have happened.”

Anyone with information is asked to ring Kevin Street Station at 01-6669400.