The Court of Appeal has dismissed Gerard Duffy’s appeal against the severity of an eight-year-and-nine-month prison sentence, with the final 12 months suspended, for participating in a criminal organisation’s attempted theft of an ATM in Virginia, Co Cavan.
In a judgment delivered on 11 November 2022, the court found no error of principle in the Special Criminal Court’s sentence. It said the sentence was significant and could be regarded as severe, but had not been shown to fall outside the available range.
The sentence was imposed on 4 March 2022 for an offence relating to an attempted theft of an ATM and its contents at the Riverfront Bar and Restaurant on 14 August 2019. A separate charge concerning possession of cash intended to facilitate serious offences was taken into consideration. Duffy pleaded guilty to the two charges.
The Court of Appeal recounted that a stolen 14-tonne digger was driven from a building site towards the ATM. Gardaí intervened as the digger’s arm was extended towards it. After a collision involving a Garda vehicle, three suspects fled. A National Surveillance Unit officer identified Duffy as the person fleeing from the digger; he was arrested and made admissions, the judgment said.
The Special Criminal Court placed the offence in the top tier of seriousness, at its lower end, and set an 11-year headline sentence. It applied a 20 per cent reduction for the guilty plea and suspended the final year.
Duffy argued that the criminal organisation was less serious than groups involved in murders or global drug trafficking, that his sentence should have been lower than his brother and co-accused Ciaran Duffy’s, and that the plea reduction and suspended portion were inadequate. The Director of Public Prosecutions opposed the appeal. The court said the focus was whether Duffy’s own sentence was appropriate; his brother possibly receiving a more severe sentence did not establish that Duffy’s sentence was wrong.
The judgment noted that Gardaí had linked the same organisation to earlier ATM incidents in Monaghan and Cavan, involving about €790,000 in stolen money. But the appeal court said that evidence had been admitted to explain the organisation’s activities and found no reason to believe the sentencing court had treated Duffy as involved in those other incidents.
The appeal was dismissed. The sentence therefore remained eight years and nine months, with the final 12 months suspended.