A CAR mechanic who sourced a van for criminals that was later used in a kidnap and robbery has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for making false statements to gardaí.
The court heard that a cash-in- transit van driver was on his way to work at 5.30am on January 4th, 2010, when two armed men approached him and took him back to his home. His mother, sister and nine-year-old niece were held hostage and driven around south Dublin and Wicklow. The gang ultimately stole €134,000 from a Brinks cash-in-transit van.
Damien Cruise (36) of Ballyboden Green, Carrickmines, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to failing to disclose information that would be of assistance to gardaí in the case of the false imprisonment of the family on April 27th, 2010, and to two charges of making a statement to gardaí that was considered time-wasting.
Judge Martin Nolan agreed to defer imposition of sentence for two weeks to allow Cruise to get his business in order. He said Cruise had “actively misled” gardaí in their investigations out of “self preservation and fear”.
He accepted Cruise had been a good citizen and an excellent mechanic. “I believe he will go on to lead a blameless life but what he did was so serious I have to impose a custodial sentence to deter other parties from doing what he did.”