Jailed for 10 years
A former All-Ireland winner has been jailed for 10 years for his part in a cross-border gang that used stolen diggers to pull ATMs from walls.
Daniel O’Callaghan (32) of Monog Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, who won three All-Ireland club medals playing for Crossmaglen Rangers, was convicted after a trial last month of 16 offences relating to a series of ATM thefts in Meath, Cavan and Monaghan in 2018 and 2019. He was sentenced at the Special Criminal Court on Monday of this week.
Ms Justice Tara Burns said that O’Callaghan took part in an “audacious” operation on behalf of a “well oiled” criminal organisation that committed a series of ATM thefts and an attempted theft that was thwarted by gardaí in August 2019. O’Callaghan had control over what the judge said was an “eye watering” sum of stolen money, amounting to more than €700,000.
Gardaí recouped €429,930 from a premises at Tullypole, Moynalty, Co Meath, which prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor SC said this week is the subject of Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) proceedings. O’Callaghan played a central role, the judge said, as a planner and active member of the gang. She said O’Callaghan contested the charges against him despite being caught “red-handed” at the scene of an attempted ATM theft in Virginia. Three of O’Callaghan’s accomplices, the Duffy brothers, were jailed last Friday for their roles in the ATM thefts (see story above).
Ms Justice Burns said that the court would take into consideration that a number of witnesses were not required to give evidence during his trial because he did not contest certain issues. She also considered a mitigating factor to be his involvement in his family and his local community.
Setting a headline sentence of 11 years for the most serious offences relating to his involvement in a criminal organisation, Ms Justice Burns said she would suspend the final year having considered the mitigating factors. O’Callaghan has entered a bond to keep the peace for three years following his release.
Sentences for the other offences ranged from three years and six months to eight years and are to run concurrently. In returning judgement last month Ms Justice Burns at the three-judge, non-jury court found that O’Callaghan was “intimately involved” in the planning of the thefts.
The court heard that, after gardaí at Virginia rammed the Landcruiser, O’Callaghan and another man ran from the jeep while a third man ran from the digger. All three jumped over a wall into a field but before they got away a garda from the National Surveillance Unit (NSU) and another garda from the Emergency Response Unit identified O’Callaghan who was just a few feet away.
The judge said the court accepted the identification evidence of the two gardaí.
O’Callaghan’s DNA was also found in a sauna in a nearby shed where O’Callaghan hid while gardaí searched the area and caught two of his accomplices.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty to offences under Section 72 and 73 of the Criminal Justice Act. He was found guilty of the attempted theft of an ATM at the Riverfront Hotel, Virginia, on August 14, 2019, for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organisation.
He is also guilty of the theft of an ATM on Main Street, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, on April 3, 2019, for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organisation.
He was found guilty of two charges of participating or contributing to the possession of cash totalling €125,930 intending to facilitate the commission by a criminal organisation or any of its members of a serious offence at Tullypole, Moynalty, Co Meath, on August 14 and 20, 2019.
He is guilty of possessing €298,000 at the same location on August 14, 2019, along with a charge of possessing a petrol can intending to use it or cause or permit another to use it to damage a stolen Toyota Landcruiser with false plates in Virginia, also on August 14.
In addition, he is guilty of possessing a stolen Toyota Landcruiser, a stolen flatbed trailer, bolt cutters, a stolen 14-tonne digger, and appropriating the digger without the consent of its owner in Virginia, all on August 14, 2019.
He is convicted of the attempted dishonest appropriation of the ATM at the Riverfront in Virginia. He was also convicted of counts relating to criminal damage at the ATM in Castleblayney and attempted criminal damage in Virginia.
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