Lithuanian getaway driver told not to return to Ireland for 14 years

Driver was part of gang that terrorised Midleton homeowner into handing over €50k from his safe

The Lithuanian getaway driver for a gang that terrorised a man into handing over €50,000 from the safe at his home in Midleton, Co Cork, is to be freed from prison to fly home — and not return for at least 14 years.

Defence barrister Donal O’Sullivan applied to have the case re-entered at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. 

He submitted that the case was finalised last month with a three-year jail sentence but that certain key information was not put before the sentencing judge.

The re-entry was allowed and evidence was then presented that the victim in the case wanted the accused to leave the country and that he was terrified of the accused.

Garda David O’Shea agreed that this was so and that the victim was terrified of the accused.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin directed that the accused should be taken from prison by gardaí for a flight from Dublin to Lithuania. 

He said the balance of the three-year sentence imposed last month should be suspended on condition that the accused would not return to Ireland for at least 14 years.

The background to the case was that an armed gang broke into a house in Midleton, forced the owner to the floor, put a jacket over his head, barricaded him into a bathroom and snatched €50,000 in cash from a safe.

Raimondas Rapolavicius, of no fixed address, was arrested in Lithuania on a European arrest warrant and brought back to Cork last July and had been remanded in custody since then pending sentencing last month. The sentence was backdated to July 2020.

Guilty plea

He pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary on December 12, 2015, at Carrig Liath, Castleredmond, Midleton, Co Cork.

The judge was told that the accused had no convictions in Europe or internationally, was involved in this crime at a very low level and was very helpful to gardaí.

The 38-year-old was using heroin at the time and was to have been paid in drugs rather than monetarily for his involvement.

Detective Garda Kieran Crowley said that on the night of December 12, 2015, three men entered the home at the address in Midleton, carrying hand guns and a Taser and forced the young man living there to the floor. They put a jacket over his head and took €50,000 in cash from a safe.

“The three males placed the young man in a downstairs bathroom and barricaded the door and left in the vehicle which was nearby. The accused was the getaway driver.

“The accused had the least part compared to others,” the detective said.