GARDAI picked out an armed robber from bank security videos on five separate occasions, as he did not wear a mask or disguise, a court heard yesterday.
Stephen McDonnell (28), of Lismore Road, Crumlin, pleaded guilty to carrying out armed raids on seven banks in the Dublin city-centre area and on a petrol station in Trim, Co Meath, between February 1995 and January this year.
Sums ranging from £100 to £2,000 were taken, and none of it has been recovered. However, McDonnell co-operated and made statements every time he was arrested.
Judge Cyril Kelly remanded him in custody to July 25th, when three other indictments involving robbery charges will also be before the court.
Outlining McDonnell's modus operandi to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court a number of Garda witnesses said he would join the queue in a bank and produce a toy gun on reaching the counter.
Last November a teller in the AIB, Lower O'Connell Street, realised his gun was fake and so was not too alarmed when he threatened to "blow her f.....g head off", Sgt Walter O'Connell said.
A month later McDonnell stole £710 from the Educational Building Society office in Liffey Street, having threatened a teller with a silver pistol-shaped cigarette-lighter which he had bought earlier in Hector Grey's shop nearby.
To raid the AIB on Capel Street on January 4th, he arrived on his mountain bike, propped it at the door and afterwards made his getaway on it, Det Sgt Christopher Kelly said.
Gardai found two 22 bullets in his house on February 14th, 1995, after McDonnell had robbed a filling station in Trim, Co Meath, three days previously. He told them he had been given four bullets, lost two and put the remaining ones under his mattress, Sgt Liam Buggy told the court.