McDowell vents anger at cash-in-transit companies

A voluntary code drawn up to ensure the safety of cash-in-transit workers may never work, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell admitted last night.

He signalled his intention to bring in laws to force security firms to improve anti-crime measures after Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy called crisis talks.

The emergency summit followed the weekend kidnapping of a couple in their 60s during a €1.3m raid of a Securicor cash-in-transit van.

After the talks at Garda Headquarters, the force said new security measures were being put in place immediately in response to the surge in hostage raids.

A working group is to be headed by Chief Superintendent Pat Hogan to structure and implement measures to enhance vulnerable areas of cash movements, a Garda spokesman said.

"This will include the deployment of specialist units together with the Garda Air Support Unit and regular uniform and detective patrols," he said.

"The representatives of the cash-in-transit companies reiterated their commitment to the full implementation of the provisions agreed under the Voluntary Code of Practice as soon as possible."

Amid heightened fears for the safety of security firm employees, Mr McDowell said he shared "the wonderment" of Commissioner Conroy as to how the attacks were carried out against an industry clearly aware of the risks.

"It is not acceptable that some companies are delivering large sums of cash in very unprotected circumstances and if this point hasn't struck home in the meetings I've had with the cash in transit industry and banks about voluntary improvement, it'll have to strike home on a different basis," he said.

Talks in June 2005 led to agreement between the major banks, security firms, the Gardaí and the Private Security Authority on a voluntary code of practice.

The measures, to be implemented by the end of last month, included the installation of impenetrable security boxes, more advanced satellite tracking equipment and increased CCTV usage.

At the time, both Mr McDowell and Commissioner Conroy said the measures would significantly improve the safety of cash-in-transit workers.

But after the latest in a spate of 'tiger' kidnappings, Mr McDowell conceded the voluntary code may not work.

"The Private Security Authority has the power to make it mandatory and I've no doubt will… I'm looking to other issues as well," he said.

He suggested new laws forcing banks and other major credit institutions to only use certified and appropriate cash-in-transit companies.

In the latest attack, an armed gang subjected Bernard and Ailish Hogan, of Hillcrest Close, Lucan, Co Dublin, to an ordeal lasting almost 17 hours in which both were held hostage.

Mrs Hogan was gagged and bound by the attackers around 7pm on Sunday before being held overnight at a derelict house in south Co Dublin.

Securicor employee Mr Hogan was held captive in his own home and ordered to persuade his colleagues to hand over the money for the gang who were holding his wife.

It was the third time this year tiger-kidnapping gangs have struck. In the first incident, on January 7, three armed men took a security firm worker and two others hostage in Swords, north Co Dublin, before demanding cash be handed over from the company.

The attempted robbery was foiled after two of the hostages managed to escape from a derelict house in the Oldtown area of the town and alert gardaí.

In the second incident, two men targeted a young couple in the quiet village of Muff, Co Donegal.

During the cross-border robbery, the man was held at the home while his 28-year-old partner was forced to hand over cash from the McDonalds fast food outlet a few miles away in Derry's Waterside.

The robberies are known as 'tiger' kidnappings because the raiders stalk their prey to study their movements before striking.

The gangs require a detailed knowledge of bank or security staff routines, job responsibilities and family ties.