A BANK robber whose mother is dying from a drugs related illness is to be sentenced by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court next Monday for a spate of raids.
Gavin Mangan (19), was arrested after gardai fired shots at a getaway car following one robbery in north Co Dublin last year.
The car crashed through a checkpoint at high speed. There was what appeared to be a gun sticking out of the car window, Judge Michael Moriarty was told.
Mangan is a heroin addict and has been institutionalised for most of the time since he was 11 years old, the court was told. He said he wanted money for drugs.
He was recognised on the Crime line television programme when a security video from an October 1994 robbery at the TSB bank in Midleton, Co Cork, was shown. His fingerprint was also found on a gun magazine left in the abandoned getaway car.
Sgt Joseph Kelly agreed with Ms Isobel Kennedy, defending, that the defendant's mother was a young woman in the last stages of a drug related illness and his father had died at 34.
Mangan, a father of one from Spencer Dock, Lower Sheriff Street, Dublin, admitted armed robbery of the Bank of Ireland and AIB bank, Skerries, the Bank of Ireland, Swords and the TSB in Midleton on dates in October 1994 and February and March 1995.
A total of about £22,000 in cash was taken, of which only £4,000 was recovered.
He also pleaded guilty to taking £7,500 worth of jeans and shirts from O'Connor's, Upper Abbey Street, Dublin, on May 13th 1995. Most of the property was recovered after gardai chased a BMW car to Sheriff Street.
Sgt Kelly told Mr Paul McDermott, prosecuting, that a gun was put to the assistant manager's head in the Skerries AIB robbery on March 30th 1995. Shortly afterwards the gang was seen transferring from a stolen red Honda Civic car to a stolen white Honda Civic. The gang was arrested after a chase.
Mangan admitted his role in the crime and also voluntarily admitted the Skerries and Swords Bank of Ireland robberies on February 24th and March 27th respectively.