Man gets five years for thefts

A man who robbed a cash-in- transit box containing €50,000 a month after he robbed a teenager of €1,700 worth of entertainment equipment has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Michael Byrne, aged 25, had taken a cocktail of up to 40 tablets and heroin on the day he robbed a G4 security van. He told gardaí he “didn’t mean to do it” but had owed money.

Byrne, of Thornville Drive, Kilbarrack, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbing a G4 cash box from a cash-in-transit van at Raheny Shopping Centre on April 27, 2014.