A drug addict who vaulted a reception desk during a Bank of Ireland robbery has been jailed for eight years by Judge Joseph Mathews at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Karl O'Shea (27), Rutland Grove, Crumlin, unemployed, was a chronic cocaine and heroin addict at the time of the offence.
Det Garda Sean Cullen told Mr Tom O'Connell, prosecuting, that O'Shea stole a Nissan car on October 6th, 1996. The next morning he and an accomplice drove the car to the Bank of Ireland, St Stephen's Green, and parked outside the bank. His accomplice, who wore a balaclava, stood at the door of the bank armed with a screwdriver and kept watch.
Det Garda Cullen said Mr O'Shea vaulted the counter and manhandled a female bank official. She was "petrified". O'Shea gathered £4,500 which was later recovered.
Some of the other bank officials locked O'Shea in a room from which he escaped by breaking a window. Gardai caught him around Mount Street. He had stashed the money in a pouch sealed in the front of his trousers.
No weapon was found on O'Shea but a syringe which he used for his drug habit was recovered from his pocket. He had a previous conviction for robbery in 1994 and is serving a seven-year sentence for another robbery.