Two Co Armagh men held a breadman hostage during a 16-mile Garda chase and had earlier held an elderly couple captive in their home following a foiled bank robbery, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told.
Desmond Carroll (31), of High Street, Bessbrook, who has been on the run since the second day of his trial in January, was sentenced to nine years in his absence after being found guilty of 14 counts following a two-week trial.
Gareth McKeown (32), of Mount Pleasant, Newry, who pleaded guilty to seven counts, was jailed for five years by Judge Frank O'Donnell.
Carroll and McKeown took off at high speed and crashed into an articulated truck after the botched robbery attempt on the Bank of Ireland in Dunleer, Co Louth, on September 1st, 2000.
After hijacking a Garda patrol car, they entered the home of an elderly couple and made off in the vehicle of a bread delivery man with the man as hostage. They crashed through a Garda checkpoint and finally came to a stop.
