The Court of Appeal increased the sentences imposed on four men who pleaded guilty to robbing Cleaboy Post Office in Waterford at gunpoint, finding that the original robbery sentences and the firearm sentences were unduly lenient.
The Director of Public Prosecutions applied under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to review the sentences imposed by Waterford Circuit Criminal Court. The appeal court allowed the applications, quashed the original sentences and resentenced each man. It did not reopen the guilty pleas or determine which of the three men who entered the post office carried the shotgun; the sentencing court had found that this could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
The robbery took place on 3 May 2018. Three masked raiders entered the post office with a sawn-off shotgun and hammers, while a fourth man waited outside as the getaway driver. They threatened staff and took €42,755, US$950, £1,200, stamps and other post office stock. Staff and customers, including a woman with two young children, were inside. The cash and other proceeds were later recovered. Two staff members described lasting fear and anxiety in victim impact statements.
The sentencing judge had imposed robbery sentences of five years, with the final 18 months suspended, for Alan Wall and Michael Tynan, and six years, with the final 12 months suspended, for Barry Walsh and Conor O’Connor. Concurrent firearm sentences were three years for Wall and Tynan, and four years for Walsh and O’Connor.
The Court of Appeal said the robbery headline sentences were too low given the planning, violence, use of a firearm, impact on victims and other aggravating circumstances. It also found the reductions for mitigation excessive. For the firearm offences, it held that the circumstances did not justify sentences below the presumptive five-year minimum. The court said the sentences would run concurrently.
The new robbery sentences were seven years for Wall, seven years and six months for Walsh, eight years for O’Connor, and seven years and three months for Tynan. Each also received a concurrent five-year sentence for firearm possession. The appeal court set robbery headline sentences of nine years for Wall and Tynan, 10 years for Walsh, and 10 years and six months for O’Connor, then applied individual reductions. O’Connor’s higher starting point reflected his previous record, including two robbery convictions, and that the offence occurred during the suspended portion of an earlier sentence.
The judgment was delivered on 2 March 2020.