Gang held bank manager’s family

A father of five will be sentenced next month for his role in a robbery in which a Dublin bank manager’s husband and two small children were held captive in a van.

Michael McGuirk, aged 45, of Captain’s Rd, Crumlin, pleaded guilty to the robbery of Bank of Ireland in Inchicore on Oct 23, 2009, in which more than €240,000 was taken.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the bank’s branch officer, Nicola Hall, and two children, aged 6 and 3, were asleep in bed.

Her husband, John Jones, a taxi driver, arrived home in Lucan after work at 1am.

At his front door, he was approached by three masked men and a gun was put to his face. Ms Hall was woken by a man holding a hand over her mouth.

Mr Jones and the children were then put in a van.

Ms Hall told to act as if it was a normal day at work. She behaved as normal until the vault’s time lock came off at 11.30am. Then she had to tell the assistant manager what happened because both of them were required to open the vault.

She put €210,000, £6,000, $10,500, and other currencies to the value of €18,000 in a bag.

The location of the van was revealed by an anonymous phonecall that was traced to a phonebox in Templeogue, Dublin. It was forensically examined and fingerprints were taken.

McGuirk was stopped 4km from the phone box in a routine Garda stop.

He was arrested on May 10, 2010, at Captain’s Rd, Crumlin. His fingerprints were taken and found to match those found on the phone box. A partial DNA profile was found on the handbrake of the van.