Nine years for drug-addicted raider

A drug addict who carried out three raids in premises in South Dublin has been given a nine-year sentence by Judge Frank O’Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Liam Gaynor (aged 43) asked the staff in Hughes and Hughes Bookshop in Dun Laoghaire if they were "ok" and thanked them after he had jumped over the counter and grabbed €650 from the register.

He later denied to gardaí that he had stolen the money but acknowledged that he was a suspect.

Gaynor, of Smithvilla’s Terrace, Dun Laoghaire, pleaded guilty to the theft at the bookshop and three pharmacy robberies on dates between March 15, 2008 and May 25, 2009. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of false imprisonment during a robbery on May 25, 2009.

He had 30 previous convictions which included a four-year sentence for robbery.

Judge O’Donnell noted there had been no physical violence but said the "roaring and shouting" some of Gaynor’s victims were subjected to was "a form of violence."

He imposed consecutive sentences totaling nine years and suspended the final five years.

Garda David Tracy told Mr Garret Baker BL, prosecuting, that Gaynor did not use a weapon during the raid in Hughes and Hughes. He was nominated as a suspect following confidential information and gardaí found him at his home hours after the theft.

Gaynor escaped through an upstairs window but was apprehended a short time later by gardaí.