Chef was getaway driver in robberies

A DUBLIN chef who was the getaway driver in two robberies has been given a two-year suspended sentence by Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Simon Higgins, aged 22, who works in Café Provence in Malahide, did not enter either premises while his co-accused raided the Maxol Service Station in Baldoyle and the Londis Store in Kinsealy on February 19, 2009.

The judge ordered that Higgins pay €2,020 he had raised as a token of remorse to Garda Shane McGrath, who will split the cash between the robbery victims. She indicated that Higgins also faced doing unpaid work in the community and adjourned the matter until July pending a community service report.

Higgins, of Larkspur, Carrickhill Road, Portmarnock, had no previous convictions but owed “a small debt” due to recreational cocaine use.

He pleaded guilty to both robberies.

His co-accused, John Ennis, aged 25, stayed behind in the Londis robbery to comfort the cashier. He asked the other staff present for her name, took her hand and told her, “I won’t hurt you” before he told her he had no choice but to do the raid because his mother had been threatened.

Ennis, of Strandmill Road, Portmarnock received a six-year sentence with the final three suspended after he pleaded guilty to the two robberies and a third robbery, five days earlier, at a Centra in Rush.

He was armed with a wheel brace in the first robbery but had no weapon in the other two.

A third man, who gardaí accepted was the ringleader in the robberies, has yet to be dealt with by the courts.