€140k taken in Cork security van raid

MASKED robbers armed with sawn-off shotguns stole up to €140,000 from a G4 security van in Cork yesterday afternoon.

The robbery happened at a Maxol station on Carr’s Hill approximately a mile from Carrigaline where the security firm was making a cash delivery to the garage’s ATM machine at approximately 4.30pm.

The three robbers, a driver and two other men, pulled up in a black Saab fitted with false number plates. The two men followed the cash-in-transit staff into the building that housed the ATM and threatened them. The three then made off with more than €100,000 and possibly as much as €140,000 in the direction of the city. The car was later found burnt out near Ballinora GAA club, which is near Waterfall.

The two security employees were left unhurt but in shock.

Regional support gardaí were drafted in to help comb the area for the culprits. Another security van had to be brought in to remove other contents from the van which was robbed so that it could be forensically examined.

Togher gardaí are leading the investigation into the robbery. Anyone who saw the black Saab between Carrigaline and Ballinora between 4.30pm and 5.30pm, in the Carrigaline or Douglas areas in the hours before 4.30pm or who saw men being picked up near the Ballinora GAA club is asked to contact Togher Garda station on 021-4947120.

Last August a G4 security officer prevented armed robbers from stealing a large sum of cash from a bank in Glanmire, Co Cork. On that occasion the two raiders held up the bank with a shotgun and sledgehammer.

The security man fought with the raider and managed to take the sledgehammer off him before the two men fled empty-handed.