Gang may have got €100k in raid

GARDAÍ were yesterday trying to track down an armed gang who got away with an estimated €100,000 in a raid on a security van in south Dublin.

It is the third time the same company — Group4 Securicor — has been targeted in little over a month.

Gardaí said the gang got away with an undisclosed amount of cash, unofficially estimated to be about €100,000.

The raid was carried out as a Securicor van was making a delivery to the Ulster Bank at Killiney Shopping Centre on the Rochestown Avenue just before 10am yesterday.

One eyewitness said a gun was put to the neck of one of the security staff during the raid.

Following a second such raid last month, Securicor publicly announced it was introducing new security measures which would apparently prevent raiders from accessing cash from staff once they stepped outside a van.

The cash would be in specially reinforced boxes which would be almost impossible to open. If they were somehow opened, the cash would be covered in dye.

A spokeswoman for Securicor said yesterday’s van was not equipped with the new security measures as these had only been put in place for vehicles servicing ATMs in “high risk” areas.

She said that as the van in Killiney was servicing the bank, rather than the ATM there, it did not have the new cassettes. It’s understood the staff were carrying the cash in large bags.

Securicor said the company’s “key concern” was the safety of those directly involved in the incident.

“We continuously change our security operating models in response to the changing threat profile. This year we have introduced a number of new security measures and these are being rolled out across the business,” said a spokesman.

A Garda spokesman said three males armed with a hand gun threatened the security staff in the raid.

“Two wore dark balaclavas and one wore a grey hooded type top that concealed his face,” he said.

He said no shots were fired and no staff were injured.

The gang made their getaway in a 05 C registered silver VW Passat, driven by a fourth member.

Detectives from Dún Laoghaire Garda Station are leading the investigation. They are identifying CCTV cameras from the centre and surrounding area.

Anyone with information is asked to ring Dún Laoghaire Garda Station on 01-6665000 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.

On July 17, armed raiders stole an estimated €120,000 from a Securicor van delivering to an Ulster Bank ATM at the Bayside Shopping Centre in Sutton, north Dublin.

This followed a raid on a Securicor van on July 3, when staff were servicing an ATM machine on the Howth Road in Clontarf, north Dublin. It’s thought in that case the armed gang got away with around €160,000.