Robber in red dress sentenced to 12 years

An armed robber who wore a red dress and a wig when he held two female bank staff captive has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by Judge Tony Hunt for his role in a €700,000 bank heist.

Danny Hamill (aged 49) of Clanmaurice Road, Donnycarney and an accomplice were caught by gardai in the carpark minutes after they left the Allied Irish Bank branch in Crumlin on June 3, 2006.

Hamill, originally from Co Armagh, pointed a loaded pistol at a garda after ignoring him shouting out: “Armed gardaí! Halt and put your arms up in the air! armed gardaí!.

His six previous convictions included robbery and assault causing actual bodily harm to a garda that were both dealt with in the Special Criminal Court and resulted in prison terms of five and two years respectively.

A set of keys for the front door of the bank, two 9mm loaded semiautomatic pistols, 34 rounds of live ammunition, including those in the firearms, a radio scanner tuned to garda frequencies and a bag of cash from the raid, were recovered by gardai who arrested Hamill and his accomplice before they got away.

Hamill, who also had sported a long black wig in the crime, dramatically changed his plea to guilty earlier this week on day-two of his trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

He admitted robbing €700,338, false imprisonment of a bank official and possession of a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol at the Crumlin AIB.