A COURT heard yesterday how a former security worker with Chubb staged a kidnapping that involved his housemates being bound with cable ties and threatened at gunpoint in an attempt to steal over €1.2 million.
Darryl Caffrey (35), Cherrypark, Rivervalley, Swords, Co Dublin, is a former Chubb employee who had worked in the cash-in-transit vans for the company.
He provided information to a criminal gang both in relation to his employer and the personal details of the two men with whom he shared a home.
Caffrey is already serving a three-year sentence for a similar type of offence which was imposed on him last January after he admitted “to providing information concerning the operation of the business of Chubb Ireland Ltd” at Tesco, Shackleton Road, Celbridge, Co Kildare, on November 2nd, 2007.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of false imprisonment of Alan Molloy and Daniel Dobrescu and to committing an offence for a criminal organisation in that he attempted to steal €1.25 million from Chubb Ltd on January 7th/8th, 2007.
Det Garda David Carolan told Seán Guerin, prosecuting, that Caffrey was in the house himself when three masked raiders arrived.
Mr Dobrescu, who had been woken up by the intruders and dragged downstairs, believed that Caffrey was also a victim in the whole incident.
Mr Molloy returned home from work later that night and had a gun pointed at his head. He was ordered to get on the ground before he was also tied up with cable ties, but was struck with the butt of the gun when he did not get down immediately.
Det Garda Carolan said his accomplices made Caffrey record a video of the two men on a mobile phone, with a gun pointed at their heads.
The two housemates were instructed to name Caffrey’s colleague and state the man’s address in the recording.
Caffrey was then ordered to go to work and bring a live bullet with him to show his colleague, along with the video recording.
He was also told to call a number already saved in the phone’s address book and warned by the raiders that if he tried to call anyone else, the two men would be shot.
Det Garda Carolan said both Mr Molloy and Mr Dobrescu were directed by the raiders to encourage Caffrey to do as he was supposed to do, before the accused went to work as normal.
A 4x4 arrived then and Mr Molloy and Mr Dobrescu were ordered to get in the back.
Their cable ties were removed and they were brought to a derelict house, where their legs were bound and they were tied up together.
A jacket was thrown over their heads and they were left there by the gang.
The men discovered a box of matches in a pocket of the jacket. They were then able to burn the cable ties and they escaped to a nearby house, where the alarm was raised.
Det Garda Carolan told Mr Guerin that in the meantime, Caffrey and his colleague did one pick-up and placed the cash in the safe in the van before they picked up a further €1.25 million, which was placed on the floor of the vehicle.
Caffrey then told his colleague about the raid and showed him the video and the bullet before he called the number in the phone.
There was no answer and the two men then got a call from their manager, who had by that time been alerted to the attempted theft, and they were ordered to come back to base.
Det Garda Carolan told Mr Guerin that the 4x4 was later discovered burned out and a toy gun and cable ties were found in it.
Caffrey gave a witness statement to gardaí some days later in which he stated that he had been terrified by the ordeal and he feared that his housemates would be killed.
The following November he was arrested for the separate attempted robbery at Celbridge, which was foiled by gardaí, and he later made full admissions in relation to this case.
Judge Katherine Delahunt adjourned the case to next March to allow her to consider sentencing.