Covert garda units could be used to track cash-in-transit delivery vans in a bid to foil dangerous armed robberies, it was revealed today.
As gardai battle to prevent hold-ups by criminal gangs in Dublin, Siptu security branch organiser Kevin McMahon said workers wanted to see more random escorts and armed gardai to try to surprise the criminals.
It is understood Justice Minister Michael McDowell will discuss allocating the extra manpower and resources to undercover units in the capital with Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy.
Mr McMahon said: "Our members are very, very worried and very concerned about these problems. They will keep it under review whether they will continue to operate if the climate becomes an unacceptable risk to them."
At a meeting with the minister, senior gardai and the Private Security Authority, union leaders pressed for more garda escorts for ATM deliveries, secure parking at banks, more CCTV on vans and at delivery/collection points.
A 50-man garda unit is already in place to help crack down on heists.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said he was very conscious of the dangers to cash-in-transit delivery workers and that their lives were under threat, but she insisted best practice must be followed.
And the spokeswoman stressed that mandatory licensing was on the cards unless the code of practice was followed.
The Minister has threatened to overhaul rules on the delivery of large sums of cash after gardai found a string of serious security lapses had played into the hands of armed robbers.
Recommendations will be made calling for the nine-month old voluntary code of practice between banks, cash-in-transit firms and unions to be thrown out and replaced by mandatory licensing of cash-in-transit firms. The move comes after Mr McDowell outlined several serious security lapses.
He said the robberies, and the manner in which thieves successfully stole hundreds of thousands of euro, showed that the banks and cash-in-transit operators could not be relied on to follow the code and protect money.
It is understood in some of the more recent thefts large sums of money were left in sacks and tossed on the floor of a van rather than a secure section of the vehicle, while another vehicle carrying huge sums was left completely unattended by security staff.
Mr McMahon said SIPTU members were prepared to follow the example of cash-in-transit crews in Sweden who refused to work for one week after 40 attacks in 2004. Some of the robbers used explosives to get their hands on money. There were 37 attacks on security vans in 2004. But in 2005 there were only nine major attacks.
Mr McMahon said there had been eight attacks so far this year on cash-in-transit crews, some of which were foiled. Mr McMahon claimed that while workers were being berated for lack of compliance with the code of practice cash-in-transit crews had stopped two recent thefts themselves. Robbers attempted to to ram a delivery van on the Malahide Road but fled empty-handed thanks to the quick thinking of the cash-in-transit crew. And in a attack at Liffey Valley shopping centre an armed robber failed after firing shots.
PA