Gardai foil robbery of security cash van in Dublin

Gardaí foiled the robbery of a security cash van in Lucan, Dublin, yesterday. A 15-strong team of armed detectives lay in wait for an armed gang in the car park of the Spa Hotel where the van was scheduled to make a delivery.

Three men, from Finglas and Cabra, were arrested at the scene.

Gardaí found a shotgun in their car along with hammers, CS spray and balaclavas. The men were driving a stolen Mitsubishi Spacewagon car.

Gardaí had the van under surveillance for some time. Senior sources said yesterday's operation was intelligence-led.

The three men, who are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, were being held at three Garda stations in Lucan, Ronanstown and Ballyfermot under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

A team of armed detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Lucan Garda station, backed by uniformed gardaí, were put in place after officers received information that the gang was planning to strike at the hotel.

Yesterday's operation was part of Operation Delivery, which was set up last year to try to tackle the soaring number of armed robberies on security vans delivering money to ATMs.

The successful operation comes after a number of high-profile robberies of cash vans in Dublin in recent weeks.

Almost €5 million was taken last month when a Securicor van was hijacked at the Strawberry beds near the Phoenix Park, and a Brinks Allied van was hijacked in Artane when the crew made an unscheduled stop for coffee.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell last week told the Dáil "good progress" was being made in the investigation into the Artane robbery.

He has expressed his disquiet at standards of professionalism in the private cash-delivery sector, and has given the firms involved four months to draw up their own code of conduct or face regulation.

From tomorrow Securicor will begin the roll-out of a new security system for the delivery of cash to ATM machines.

The new system involves money being put into a small case called a cassette. Cassettes of money are then stored and transported in strong boxes.

The money only comes out of the cassette when it is slotted into the safe at the back of an ATM. If the cassette or strong box is tampered with in any way, chemicals in the cassette and dye in the strong box will degrade the money, rendering it worthless.

Currently money is only protected in a dye box when it is being carried from a cash van to a delivery point. It means the cash in the back of a van is not protected in any way as it is being driven around.

The new system has been developed by Securicor and AIB over the last 12 months. AIB ATMs have been modified to enable them to take the cassettes.

Securicor's managing director Bernard Smith said the phased introduction of the system beginning tomorrow was the culmination of 12 months' work by the firm to improve safety.

The system was "one part of a wide-ranging package of enhanced security measures that the company has been developing, and will be unveiling in the coming weeks. These will complement the high-standard security systems that we are already using. Staff safety is our over-riding concern," said Mr Smith.

Siptu official Kevin McMahon, who represents members in the union's security section, welcomed the development, saying the system had worked well in other jurisdictions, and would bring Irish operators into line with international best practice.

The union would press Mr McDowell when they met him next week to ensure the roll-out of the system across the entire financial and cash-transit sectors.