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.