Gang tied up mother and daughter and stole up to €30,000

Gardaí believe up to €30,000 in cash was stolen by a gang who tied up a woman and her young daughter in their home before escaping in the family’s car.

The 43-year-old woman and her 8-year-old daughter were tied to chairs with cable ties in the house as four gang members looked for cash and other valuables.

They eventually opened a safe in the house and emptied it of the cash it contained. Jewellery was also stolen by the masked men who were armed with crowbars.

Neither the woman nor her daughter were physically injured in the attack but were said to be shocked after the incident.

The woman’s husband and child’s father had left for work for the day in his dental practice when the gang struck at around 9.15am today.

The raiders called to the front and back doors of the house at Casana View in Howth at the same time and when the woman opened her hall door, the two men she found on the doorstep burst into the property past her. The other two raiders entered the house via the back door.

The couple at the centre of the attack are Sean Murray and Lesley Geoghegan who own the Smile Design Dental Clinic. The company has branches in Baldoyle, north Dublin, around three kilometres from the couple’s home and also in Ballybough in Dublin’s north inner city.

The Irish Times understands when the raiders entered the house they demanded money from Ms Geoghegan and eventually got the safe open, taking the cash.

Gardai believe they were in the house for less than 30 minutes in what appears to have been a well planned attack.

The raiders left the scene in one of the family cars, a 07 Honda CRV which was later found abandoned a short distance away in Howth Village. Ms Geoghegan managed to free herself shortly after the men had gone and alerted neighbours who then called the gardaí.

The house where the attack took place underwent an examination yesterday by members of the Garda Technical Bureau and the car stolen by the raiders was taken away by gardai for forensic testing.

CCTV footage from Howth Village is also being gathered in an effort to try and identify theraiders.

Gardaí believe the gang was working on the assumption that there was a large sum of money in the house. The same sources said the gang appeared to wait until they knew Mr Murray had left for the day before they struck.

Gardaí have appealed for anyone who was in Howth Village or the Casana View area from 8.30am to 9.30am yesterday to contact them in Howth or any Garda station.