Jail for quartet recruited to raid Galway jewellers

Four criminals were contracted in Lithuania to target a Galway jewellers where they carried out an armed robbery stealing €1.1m worth of diamond rings and Rolex watches.

Det Sgt John McElroy told the men’s sentence hearing at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that the robbery had originally been planned from Lithuania and the four before the court, Irmantas Paulauskas, aged 38, Saulius Repecka, aged 37, Erikas Matusevicius, aged 36, and Vaidas Pinelis, aged 28, had been “recruited” there to do the job.

They arrived in Dublin two days before the robbery. They came to Galway the day beforehand to case the premises, Hartmann Jewellers on William St, which is in a pedestrianised area, and position unlocked bicycles nearby at Merchant’s Rd, which were to be used for their getaway to the bus station.

Sentencing Paulauskas to 14 years in prison and the other three men to eight years, Judge Rory McCabe hinted that people with local knowledge must have played a part in the planning and execution of the robbery.

“The evidence strongly suggests this robbery was carefully and meticulously planned and these men were probably under contract to carry it out,” he said.

“There were probably many other links on the chain because the men’s knowledge of the geography of Galway and the premises was of the greatest detail. All of them knew where to go and what to look for in the shop and how to get at it and how to get away afterwards.

“I think there were other people involved, who were supposed to collect the rucksacks under that tree. They must have been greatly disappointed when they came up empty-handed.”

The men were only on the premises for 90 seconds before leaving calmly with two rucksacks crammed with 16 trays of diamond rings and 32 Rolex watches.

Gardaí later found the rucksacks hidden under a bush at the water’s edge on Lough Atalia.

All four were arrested within a hour of the robbery and while three of them admitted their guilt straight away, Paulauskas denied any involvement, claiming he had been on a day-trip on his own when he was kidnapped by gardaí.

A jury found him guilty on Wednesday following a two-week trial, of carrying out the robbery and of being armed with an imitation pistol.

The sentence hearing yesterday heard all four men had previous convictions in Lithuania with Paulauskas having the more serious convictions — for thefts, fraud, and serious assaults.

He expressed no remorse for the terror female staff had to endure during the robbery, while the other three men expressed genuine remorse, Sgt McElroy said.

The judge said: “It’s very likely the robbers would have got away with it but for the good citizens of Galway who got involved that day and followed the men at great personal risk to themselves.”