A 15-year-old boy, facing sentence for a spate of ATM scams where people had €200 stolen from under their noses, has been refused bail at the Dublin Children's Court.
The court also heard that the teenager had been charged with two further incidents for theft of sums of €200 at ATMs on April 18th and July 12th last in Dublin city centre.
Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick refused the teenager's bail application yesterday and remanded him in custody for a further week. The youth had his bail revoked last week after he broke his bail conditions which stated he must "stay out of the Dublin 1 and Dublin 2 areas, obey a curfew from 8pm to 8am and to stay away from any ATM".
The teenager had pleaded guilty to the theft of €200 from a boy at an Ulster Bank ATM, College Green, Dublin, on March 9th. He also admitted a charge of stealing €200 from a woman on Suffolk Street on March 4th and from another on March 11th last on Grafton Street, and attempted theft from another woman at an ATM on March 8th last.
None of the stolen money had been recovered. "He is part of a group which is involved; he is being influence by older people. His mother is failing to control him," Garda John White of Pearse Street said earlier.
At a previous hearing a garda explained that the "teen and an accomplice approached the injured parties and held a magazine in front of the screen after the PIN had been entered. They distracted them and then took the €200 from the machine unnoticed." The boy was able to tell what stage of a transaction the machine was at from its sounds.