An elderly woman was locked under the stairs after being robbed by her grandson for money to buy drugs.
The heroin addict and his accomplice who robbed €9,000 from the then 81-year-old woman were given five-year suspended sentences at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Jonathan Clarke (25), O'Devaney Gardens, Dublin 7, and his accomplice locked his grandmother in a cupboard under her stairs which they then blocked with a sofa after they robbed her.
Clarke and Gareth Dowdall (26), Drumalee Road, Cabra, pleaded guilty to the robbery of the woman on December 4th, 2003.
Judge Donagh McDonagh yesterday imposed a five-year jail term on both, but the sentences were suspended on condition they stay out of trouble.
Det Garda Andy Tuite told Noel Whelan, prosecuting, that when Clarke's grandmother answered a knock to her back door, the two men, who had their heads covered, pushed her back into the house and put her sitting in a chair while they searched a smock she was wearing under her apron.
Garda Tuite said they took a number of purses from the pockets of this smock and pushed the lady into a cupboard under the stairs.
They blocked the cupboard with a sofa and fled the scene, but she forced it open and got help from a neighbour.
Garda Tuite agreed with Geraldine Small, defending, that Clarke and Dowdall had spent €8,200 of the cash on drugs within days.