A CRIMINAL with 80 previous convictions has been jailed for six years for his role in attempting to steal €855,000 from a cash van in Celbridge two years ago.
The planned armed robbery was foiled by gardaí in a highly organised surveillance and arrest operation.
Jeffrey Morrow (27), of Hazelcroft Road, Finglas, was arrested at the scene with his accomplices.
Earlier this week, Morrow took the stand to deny tipping off gardaí that he and his alleged accomplices were to carry out the raid.
He is the only one to have pleaded guilty, and is currently serving a five-year sentence for offences committed before the attempted theft.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring with others to commit a serious crime, namely the theft of cash at Tesco, Shackleton Road, Celbridge, on November 2nd, 2007.
Other men were arrested at the scene, and some are to stand trial next March. They cannot be identified due to a court order.
A sixth man, Darryl Caffrey, was given a three-year sentence last January for supplying inside information to the gang through his role as a cash van worker for Chubb Ltd.
Judge Patricia Ryan said she had to mark the “very serious nature of the offence”, but took into account Morrow’s plea of guilty.
Morrow decided to give evidence, despite being cautioned by his defence counsel, Luigi Rea, that this would leave him open to cross-examination. He alleged that gardaí attempted to pressure him into giving them information about the theft but denied telling them anything.
“All I want to do here today is clear my name,” he said. “I never said anything about anybody. It was not my fault other people were arrested that day.”
When cross-examined by Sean Guerin, prosecuting, Morrow denied he was in the area to steal the cash, despite having already pleaded guilty to this.
He claimed he was there to steal a car on his own. “I pleaded not guilty all along,” he said. “I only changed my plea to get it all over with.”
However, when pressed by Mr Guerin, Morrow accepted he had pleaded guilty and was actually there to steal the money.
The court heard his life was in danger and he was under special protection in prison, meaning he is confined to his cell for 23 hours a day.
Morrow has 80 previous convictions and was jailed for five years last March for possession of a shotgun, cocaine and a Garda baton and radio.
A garda told the court at the time that the man he may have been holding the gun for was later murdered.
Det Garda Greg Flemming told Mr Guerin that gardaí learned through confidential information an armed robbery was planned on a Chubb cash delivery van.
As a result of the tip-off, gardaí placed four cars under surveillance and followed them to where they all met up in Ballymun.
They travelled in convoy to the offices of Chubb in the Sandyford Industrial Estate, where they waited for a cash van to leave and followed it. Along the way the cars stopped, and Morrow was seen swapping vehicles with someone else.
The van parked outside Tesco in Celbridge, and the driver got out to deliver the cash. Several men from the cars approached the van with a key and attempted to open it. There was €850,000 in the vehicle at the time.
Gardaí moved in, and all the men were arrested. Det Garda Flemming agreed with Mr Rea that Morrow had not identified anyone else involved during the interviews.
Mr Rea said his client had never been employed and had a partner and two children. He said his brother died in 2006 and he had gone “off his head” on cocaine. He added his life was in danger while he was in custody and he was under considerable stress.