A MAN who helped cash van raiders escape and was then found with €70,000 of cocaine has been sentenced to seven years.
Liam Black (39), St Attracta Road, Cabra, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of cocaine for sale and supply at his home and to impeding the apprehension of a person who had committed a robbery on November 11th, 2009.
The court heard two men had taken €32,500 at gunpoint from a Securicor van and were seen escaping in a van registered to Black. Black was later found outside his home painting the floor of the van black. A search of a house revealed 1kg of cocaine.
At sentencing, Judge Yvonne Murphy said Black had been a drug addict at the time but was a good father to his children and his partner’s children. She suspended the final two years of the sentence.
Garda John Harrington told prosecuting counsel Vincent Heneghan two men armed with a sawn-off shotgun robbed a Securicor van. During the robbery the raiders fired a shot before escaping in a blue Mercedes.
They drove to Ashington Mews on the Navan Road where they climbed over a wall and got into a waiting Toyota Hiace. A witness saw this and took down the registration before passing it to gardaí.
Gardaí traced the van to Black and when they went to his home that day they found him in the van’s rear painting the floor with black paint. They then began to search the house. A Garda helicopter observing the scene spotted a man come out and go into the neighbour’s garden.
Gardaí then asked to search the neighbour’s house, where they found cocaine worth €70,000.
Black was arrested but refused to co-operate in interview. He has five previous convictions including two for theft and one for robbery.
Defence counsel Seán Gillane said Black had allowed the raiders to use his van and that gardaí had caught him trying to erase the evidence.