Soldier 'has no memory' of service-station robbery attempt

A former Irish Army soldier who discovered he tried to rob his local garage when his friends called him to say he was on TV programme Crimeline may have the option of community service in lieu of a prison sentence.

David Day (aged 34) of Mount Eustace Park, Tyrellstown had no recollection of committing the crime. When he went to the garda station the next day to tell them he was responsible, the gardaí at first thought he was joking.

He persisted and brought them back to his home to give them the clothes he had been wearing that night. Day, who was working as a taxi driver at the time, pleaded guilty to an attempted robbery of the Shell Service Station in Mulhuddart on March 12, 2005 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Ms Grainne O’Neill BL, defending, told Judge Katherine Delahunt that Day had been in the Irish Army for five years before he started working as a taxi driver.

Ms O'Neill said he had not a drink or drug problem and had no explanation as to how the incident happened. He had been engaged to be married but the relationship broke up because of the stress of the court case.

Judge Delahunt said that although this type of offence normally involved a custodial sentence she was willing to consider community service because it was an "unusual case".

Judge Delahunt noted also that Day had no previous convictions, had not come to garda attention since and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

She said society might be better served by having him do community work instead of being jailed and remanded him on bail to allow for the preparation of a Probation and Welfare Services Report on his suitability for community service.

Judge Delahunt told Day that his crime must have had a very frightening effect on his victim to which he replied: "I am very sorry, your honour."

Sergeant John Carr told Mr Garrett Baker BL, prosecuting, that Day approached the cashier working in the Shell garage and told her to open the till. She refused and he dragged her by the hair and pushed her when she tried to defend herself.

Day ran out of the shop when a taxi driver came into the garage after hearing her scream for help while Day continued to drag her and also pushed her up against a cigarette machine.

Sgt Carr said Day was easily identified on CCTV footage as he was not wearing a disguise. Day admitted it was he on the footage but told gardaí that it didn’t make any sense because he had no recollection of it at all.

He accepted that Day told his legal team that he did not want them to prepare any defence on his behalf and that he has since stopped working as a taxi driver because he was "getting a lot of stick from the locals."