Unlucky bank robber given suspended sentence

A member of a gang who arrived to rob a bank just after it closed because their stolen get-away car had been delayed in rush-hour traffic has been given a five-year suspended sentence.

Dermot O'Callaghan (aged 39) and his gang pointed a firearm out the back car window at gardaí during a high-speed chase around heavy traffic after their attempt to force the bank door open failed.

O'Callaghan, of Maxwell Street, Rialto, pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm and attempted burglary at Ulster Bank, Main Street, Tallaght on September 29, 2003.

The other members of the gang were sentenced in 2005: Barry Kelly (aged 30) of Kilmartin Road, Tallaght was jailed for 30 months and Raymond Birrell (aged 35) of Slievenamon Road, Drimnagh for three years.

Defence counsel, Mr Luán Ó Braonáin SC, said O'Callaghan had rehabilitated himself and was now the sole carer for his young son, who had suffered heroin withdrawal as a new born as his parents were both addicts.

Judge Tony Hunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said he was willing to "broker a social contract" between O'Callaghan and the people of Ireland who had suffered due to his activities. He said he did not think it was in the interests of justice to return the reformed O'Callaghan to custody and force his young son into care.

Judge Hunt said "innocent people are sometimes punished because of the actions of parents" and stressed that the courts could not be "blackmailed" into non-custodial sentences but said he was satisfied that O'Callaghan in 2008 was no longer the same man who had committed this offence.

Judge Hunt imposed a five-year sentence which he suspended for a period of 10 years on strict conditions.

Garda Susan Kinsella agreed with Mr Ó Braonáin (with Mr Shane Costelloe BL) that the actions of the gang were "almost laughable" and she said they may have missed the bank closing because traffic at that time on Friday afternoon was "bumper to bumper".

She agreed that 5' 4" O'Callaghan had drawn attention to himself by wearing a curly black wig and that gardaí asked him if he thought he was Superman when questioning him about his attempts to force the locked bank door open.

Garda Kinsella told prosecuting counsel Mr Damien Colgan BL that gardaí were alerted by witnesses who saw two men trying to force the bank door open and chased their stolen getaway car, which drove away at speed, weaving in and out through heavy traffic and up on the footpaths.

It also avoided a "stinger" placed at a roundabout by gardaí to try to stop it until it was eventually "boxed-in" by patrol cars in Walkinstown.

Garda Kinsella said O'Callaghan pointed what turned out to be an pellet gun at gardaí from the back window of the car at two points during the high-speed chase. Kelly also had a gun in his hand which he dropped when confronted by armed gardaí, but this turned out to be a children's toy cap gun.

She said the three were arrested and O'Callaghan refused to answer any questions during interview.

Garda Kinsella said O'Callaghan had 12 previous convictions for offences including robbery and burglary.

Mr Ó Braonáin asked the court to consider that O'Callaghan had used the intervening time since this offence well and was no longer the man he was at that time.

Mr Ó Braonáin said O'Callaghan was an "entrenched heroin addict who had turned his life around for his son" after being released early in 2000 from an eight-year sentence for attempted robbery with a firearm.