Impose 10-year minimum sentence on criminals for tiger raids, says FF

A minimum 10-year jail term should be imposed on criminals involved in tiger kidnappings, Fianna Fáil has said.

Party whip Seán Ó Fearghaíl — whose sister was held at gunpoint during such a kidnapping last year — yesterday published proposals to beef up the law on the area.

The main proposal in the Criminal Justice (Aggravated False Imprisonment) Bill is to impose a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years on those involved in tiger kidnappings. Exceptions to the sentence would be allowed only if an individual who participated assisted gardaí in identifying the others involved.

Tiger kidnappings are where a criminal gang target workers who have access to large sums of cash, typically bank executives, by holding a family member hostage.

Last April, Mr Ó Fearghaíl’s sister, Mary O’Sullivan, and her family were the victims of a tiger kidnapping. Raiders entered their home in Kildare and took Ms O’Sullivan away to a location in Dublin.

Her husband, a senior official in An Post, and their two children were held at the family home until the following morning, when the raiders demanded he go to the GPO and obtain €100,000 in cash for them.

However, the gang got spooked after suspecting gardaí had learned of the operation and so abandoned the ransom attempt.

Mr Ó Fearghaíl said the experience of his sister and her family had alerted him to the lack of deterrents for the crime.

“Tiger kidnapping per se is not recognised in the law, as such, so (the purpose of) this bill, first and foremost… is to act as a deterrent to this dreadful crime. My sister thank God is fine, but there is a life-long impact on the victims… people don’t feel secure in their homes after these events, and it impacts on entire families.”

If the Coalition decides not to support the bill in the Dáil, it cannot become law. Mr Ó Fearghaíl said he saw no reason why the Government would oppose it.