A WOMAN has brought a High Court action for damages after she was targeted by criminals and robbed while collecting bank data and cheques as part of her work as a courier for Iarnród Éireann.
A security adviser and former garda told the court yesterday he believed Frances Lyndon was unsuitable for the work because criminals perceived women as "soft targets".
Ms Lyndon (51), Dollymount Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin claims she suffered post-traumatic stress as a result of an incident on Pearse Street, Dublin, on July 20th, 1999, when a masked man rammed her vehicle, smashed her car window and stole bank documents from her, including cheques en route for clearance.
In her action against Iarnród Éireann, Ms Lyndon claims she was under the control of the rail company even though she was described as a subcontractor.
She alleges the company failed to have sufficient regard for her safety and should have known she was being placed in a high-risk situation as a result of her work. She said Iarnród Éireann had failed to warn her of the risk of robbery.
Iarnród Éireann denies the claims. Ms Lyndon had also sued Bank of Ireland but her claim against the bank was struck out.
Opening the case, Ms Lyndons counsel, Martin Gleeson, said she suffered post-traumatic stress as a result of "a well organised criminal operation". She stopped working as a courier after the robbery and spent time out of the workforce. She now works in the healthcare industry.
Ms Lyndon told the court that from 1997 she was hired by Iarnród Éireann to collect satchels from Bank of Ireland branches in north Dublin and deliver them to the bank's clearing section at Cabinteely. She used her own car, and was to to pick up the satchels at specific times and to drive a specific route. She was paid £60 a day and knew only that she was collecting bank data.
On July 20th 1999, a car reversed into her vehicle in Pearse Street. A person wearing a balaclava and wielding a hatchet got out of the passenger side, threatened her, smashed the window of her car, and took seven satchels.
Ms Lyndon said she was "terrified" by this incident. She quit the courier work, did not work for some time afterwards and received counselling. On one occasion she experienced a panic attack in a car park.
Cross examined by Marie Whelan SC, for Iarnród Éireann, Ms Lyndon agreed that she did not receive any holiday pay or sick leave and was responsible for her own tax affairs.
She agreed she was told by Iarnród Éireann to put the satchels in the boot of the car and that, on the day of the robbery, the satchels were in the back of her car behind the driver's seat. She did not put them in the boot as she did not want to draw attention to what she was doing, she said.
She could not recall receiving any letter from Iarnród Éireann about personal safety. When she started the job, she was told by somebody at the company "to be careful".
Sgt John McElroy told the court that gardaí believed the robbery was well organised by criminals who knew what was in the car.
A security adviser and former garda, Hugh Byrne, said criminals had an interest in anything to do with banks. Delivery routines, routes and times would become known to criminals, he said, and should be changed regularly.
Ms Lyndon's work was "naive and risky". He believed such work, involving the carrying of confidential documents, was not a job for a woman because criminals would perceive a woman as a "soft target" but was a job for a man with a specially equipped vehicle, not a private car.