A 39-year old man involved with a cross-border gang that carried out a series of ATM thefts has been jailed for four-and-a-half years, with the final 18 months suspended, by the Special Criminal Court.
Niall Finnegan of Cherry Grove, Cullyhanna, Co Armagh pleaded guilty in July at the three-judge court to possessing or handling just under €104,000 at The Yard, Tullypole, Moynalty, Co Meath, following an ATM theft on 20 August 2019.
In sentencing Finnegan, Mr Justice Hunt said Detective Sergeant Mark Looby had given evidence regarding an investigation into six ATM thefts in Cavan and Monaghan between September 2018 and August 2019.
The judge said these ATM thefts had been carried out by what gardaí believed was a cross-border gang based in east Monaghan and south Armagh.
He highlighted how the gang had stolen €790,000 before arrests were made two years ago by undercover detectives monitoring the activities of suspects.
The court heard that in the early hours of August 14, 2019, a grey Toyota Landcruiser and a flat back truck was used to steal a 14-tonne digger on the Bailieborough Road in Virginia, Co Cavan.
The digger was to be used in the theft of the ATM at the Riverfront Hotel in the town but the Garda Emergency Response unit intervened.
Two men were arrested inside the hour while a third man was later arrested.
Mr Justice Hunt said gardaí got a search warrant for a yard at Tullypole and found close to €290,000 in cash in a shed.
One of the arrested males had at that stage been released by gardaí and then driven to Tullypole by Finnegan, where two packages of cash were dug up and put in the shed.
Finnegan and this male left and returned with a third male in a Toyota Avensis later in the day and put €15,000 in the car and close to €89,000 in the boot of the Avensis, which was later discovered to be registered in a false name.
Mr Justice Hunt said that while Finnegan admitted to twice driving to Tullypole on the day, he denied any involvement with the ATM thefts.
The judge said the maximum sentence for the offence was 15 years imprisonment but the court had placed the crime at the lower end of the middle spectrum of offending.
