Man pleads guilty to role in Phibsboro bank branch theft

A Dublin man involved in a €300,000 robbery on Permanent TSB has been described in court as something of a comical figure.

Thirty-year-old Tony Quinn of Park View, Park Close, is to be sentenced tomorrow having pleaded guilty to the theft on a branch in Phibsboro on September 22, 2009.

Tony Quinn was out of breath and sweating when caught red-handed by gardaí holding a bag containing €318,000 worth of cash.

The 30-year-old's role in the robbery on Permanent TSB was to pick up the money from by a railway track in Broombridge which had been dropped there by a terrified bank employee.

The court heard she had been given the impression that there had been a kidnapping by the people behind the raid, but this was not true.

Tony Quinn said he was forced into the theft over a drug debt. He fully co-operated with gardaí and his lawyers said he has done everything possible to address his addiction.

Quinn is the only person to come before the courts in this on-going investigation. He will have his sentence finalised tomorrow.