The Court of Appeal has increased sentences imposed on James Preston for an attempted robbery outside an East Wall pub and a later Finglas incident in which an occupied Garda car was deliberately rammed.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had challenged the sentences imposed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in February 2017 as unduly lenient. The Court of Appeal agreed.
The attempted robbery occurred on 28 October 2014 near the Seabank Public House in East Wall. Gardaí, acting on intelligence, observed Preston driving in apparent convoy with another vehicle. When the pub owner emerged, Preston blocked his car, got out wearing dark clothing and gloves and carrying a wheel brace and Stanley knife. Gardaí intervened before the robbery could proceed.
The second incident occurred in Finglas on 9 May 2015. Preston reversed a BMW into an unmarked Garda car twice before driving away at high speed. The court recorded dangerous driving on the wrong side of the road, over a kerb and traffic island and through red lights. The BMW had been stolen and carried false registration plates.
The appeal court found both episodes required substantial effective prison terms. For the attempted robbery, it assessed six years before mitigation and reduced that to three years because of significant evidence of rehabilitation.
For the Finglas offences, the court considered five years appropriate before mitigation for both the criminal damage and unlawful taking, and six months for dangerous driving. After mitigation, it imposed three years, with the sentences on that bill concurrent with each other but consecutive to the attempted-robbery sentence.
The court also considered Preston's 88 previous convictions and his extensive efforts at rehabilitation. Those efforts had initially been impressive, but in 2020 he committed a further drug offence under section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act and received a four-year sentence.
The new three-year attempted-robbery sentence was to run from 21 July 2021, with full credit for the 18 months Preston had already served under the original sentence.