Van thief's 13-year sentence upheld

The Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) has today dismissed a father of two's appeal against the severity of the 13-year jail sentence he received for conspiring to rob a cash-in-transit van carrying €200,000 and drugs offences.

The three-judge CCA said that the 13-year prison term imposed on Michael Taylor was appropriate given the "very serious" nature of the offences he committed.

In November 2008 Taylor (aged 28) with an address at Summerhill, Dublin 1 was one of three men jailed for eight years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for conspiring to rob a cash-in-transit van at the AIB in Sandyfort on August 23 2007.

He was also given an additional eight years for possession of cocaine worth €70,000 for sale or supply after gardaí caught him in what was described as "a drug-mixing factory" at a Garristown, Co Dublin house on July 26, 2006.

Taylor pleaded guilty to the offences. The final three years of the sentence was suspended. The sentences were to run consecutively because the second offence was committed while Taylor was on bail. Taylor appealed the severity of the sentence.

Moving the appeal Patrick Marrinan SC, for Taylor said that the trial judge had erred by failing to take into account that Taylor was of low intelligence, that his previous convictions did not include crimes of violence and that his involvement with drugs was at a low level.

The DPP opposed the appeal and argued the sentence was appropriate in the circumstances.

Today the three-judge CCA of Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Daniel Herbert and Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, dismissed Taylor's appeal against the sentence. The court could find no error in principal with the sentence.