Former taxi driver jailed for transporting stolen cigarettes

A former taxi driver who drove a stolen van containing cigarettes worth over €300,000 which had been earlier robbed from two delivery men has been sentenced to four years in prison with the last two and half years suspended.

Aaron O’Driscoll (aged 37) was not present at the scene of the robbery where the delivery men were tied up and left in the back of their van but he was involved in the logistics of the offence.

O’Driscoll, of Adare Avenue, Coolock, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of €314,916 worth of cigarettes and tobacco products and unlawful use of a van in Blachardstown on March 14, 2007.

Mr Paul Carroll BL, prosecuting, said it was not the State's case that O’Driscoll was present at the imprisonment of the two delivery men but that he was involved in driving a second van containing the stolen cigarettes, the logistics of the enterprise and there was mobile phone traffic between him and third parties in the offence.

Judge Desmond Hogan said he was prepared to accept O’Driscoll had a lesser role but it was a lesser role in a serious offence. He accepted that although a probation report before the court was “good” it indicated that O’Driscoll was at a moderate risk of re-offending due to his lack of employment.

He accepted that O’Driscoll has since made efforts to address his addiction but said it was a “well-planned and serious offence” which the involved use of a gun. He added that although O’Driscoll was not there at the time of the robbery he was “part of the whole scenario”.

Judge Hogan suspended the last two and half years of the sentence on strict conditions and said he was “resisting the temptation to disqualify him from driving”.

Detective Garda Carl McCormack told Mr Paul O’Carroll BL, prosecuting, that two men in a bonded delivery van left their warehouse with a consignment of cigarettes at about 9am and stopped at a garage on Ballycoolin Road to check the wheel of their vehicle for air.

Det Gda McCormack said one of the men was grabbed and saw a man with what looked like a Glock pistol in his hand. He was forced into the back of his van and the second man was told to get back into the van and drive it.

He was forced by the robber to drive to a car park at the rear of Dolly Heffernan’s Pub about 100 yards away.

Two criminals then threw the consignment of cigarettes valued at €314,000 into the back of a second van, which had been stolen the previous day, and left the two victims tied up in the back of their work van.

O’Driscoll’s car was later spotted by gardaí driving in convoy with the stolen van on the Enfield by-pass and both vehicles were stopped. O’Driscoll was driving the stolen van and gave gardaí his details on arrest. All the cigarettes were recovered.

O’Driscoll, who has eight previous convictions, said he had simply been asked to drive the van and was to be paid.

Mr Felix McElroy SC, defending, said O’Driscoll had a drug addiction at the time but has been attending at Merchants Quay for drug counseling and was capable of rehabilitation. He said O’Driscoll had admitted the offence rather then trying to “brazen it out” and was no longer able to work as a taxi driver.