THE getaway driver in an armed robbery will serve a 16 month prison sentence after six years of a term he is already serving has been completed.
Darren Cranley was jailed recently for 10 years for attempted robbery and possession of guns in Deansgrange, Co Dublin, in January 1994. The final four years of that sentence was suspended on condition he behaved well.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Judge Michael Moriarty said that, in effect, he was unsuspending 16 months of the four years and leaving Cranley with an incentive to reform himself.
Cranley (23), of Loreto Avenue, Rathfarnham, pleaded guilty to robbery at a Kilternan service station on December 4th, 1994.
Det Garda Leonard Conaty said he and Det Garda Cliona Richardson stopped a car after being alerted to the robbery carried out by two men.
There were five people in the car and Cranley was the only one not known to them. They found gloves and sun glasses in the car and there was a bag containing the money with a starting pistol strapped underneath it.
Det Garda Conaty said Cranley ran from the car and he had to chase him for five minutes before arresting him. Det Garda Richardson stayed with the car but during a commotion one of the other suspects fled with the money and it was not recovered.
Defence counsel, Ms Geraldine Connolly, said the gun was incapable of firing. Cranley was a drug addict at the time and he agreed to be the getaway driver.
Last December, the court heard Cranley was one of two men involved in an attempted robbery on a Securicor van in Deansgrange.