Developed by paramilitaries in the North, kidnap robberies have become the most worrying new crime type to have emerged in the Republic in recent years.
Gangs involved use fear to get their way. They operate on the premise that staff with access to cash will hand over huge sums when they and their loved ones are held hostage and threatened at gunpoint.
All of the recent robberies in the Republic have followed a similar pattern. An employee with access to cash in his or her workplace has been identified.
Their movements have been closely monitored and details of home address gained. Gang members, who are often armed, have called to the target's home and held them and their family hostage. The worker has been ordered to use his or her position to access large sums of money at their place of work.
Only one gang has been caught and charged. So far about €6 million has been robbed in a relatively small number of recent robberies. Some of the successful and unsuccessful attacks have included:
January 12th - An armed gang got away with an undisclosed sum of money after holding a couple at gunpoint in Muff, Co Donegal. The 28-year-old woman was only freed after her 32-year-old partner drove to McDonalds in Derry, where he is the manager, and collected cash which he handed over to gang members.
January 8th - Gardaí foiled an attempt to rob €1 million from a cash in transit van. The driver was told by gang members to go to work as usual after he and his two friends were kidnapped from their home in Swords, Co Dublin. However, the handover of the money in the city centre was foiled after the driver's two friends freed themselves and raised the alarm.
September 2006 - About €820,000 was stolen from the Permanent TSB in Northside Shopping Centre, Coolock, Dublin, after the manager was held captive in her home in Clogherhead, Co Louth, along with her husband and two children. Her family was freed after she left money for collection in a park in Clonshaugh.
August 2006 - Some €270,000 was paid out by the National Irish Bank, Killester, Dublin, after the family of a junior staff member was kidnapped from their Baldoyle home and held overnight in Donaghmede.
March 2005 - The family of Securicor worker Paul Richardson was held captive by an armed gang. They were freed in a wooded area in Wicklow after Mr Richardson was forced to go to work as normal and hand over €2.3 million from his van to those holding his family.
