(29 Jun 2010)
A 23-year-old man is due to appear in Tallaght District Court this morning in connection with the theft of more than €200,000 from Allied Irish Bank last week.
The robbery under investigation began in the early hours of Tuesday when gang members broke into a rented house in Kiltipper, Tallaght, west Dublin, where an AIB bank worker and his male housemate live.
The housemate was taken away by the three-man gang in a car just before 3.30am.
At least two of the gang were armed with handguns.
The 21-year-old bank worker was given a phone by the gang and told to go to work as normal at the AIB branch in Crumlin Cross on Tuesday morning.
He was contacted again just before noon and told to drop off a bag of cash, containing €210,000, at a location close to the Red Cow roundabout in west Dublin.
His housemate was then freed in Portmarnock, north Dublin, at 1.30pm and contacted gardaí.
It is understood that security protocols set down by gardaí for raids involving hostage-taking were not followed.
Three men aged 70, 23 and 38, were later arrested and questioned under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act. Some €30,000 was recovered by investigating gardaí.
Source: Irish Times