Raiders fled empty-handed from Limerick store after safe fell out of getaway car

FOUR members of a crime gang fled the scene of a burglary empty-handed after a safe containing more than €20,000 in cash fell out of the car they were travelling in.

Dramatic CCTV footage from the Centra store in Askeaton was played during the sentencing hearing of one of the raiders, who according to gardai, was “supervising” the operation.

Michael Harty, 36, who has an address at Rossmanagher Road, Sixmilebridge, County Clare has pleaded guilty to a single charge of burglary relating to the break-in which occurred during the early hours of May 3, 2018.

Detective Garda Jason Mitchell told Judge Tom O’Donnell the defendant was one of three masked men who forcibly entered the shop at Clounreask, Askeaton at around 1.45am while a fourth remained outside and acted as lookout.

“It was a planned and premeditated crime,” he said. Extensive damage was caused to the shuttering and inside the premises during the burglary which lasted for just over nine minutes.

Footage from inside the store shows the raiders proceeding directly to a back office where they located the safe. The can then be seen removing the safe on a hand-trolley and placing it in the boot of a black Audi S4 Quattro, which had been stolen in the UK a number of weeks earlier.

Detective Garda Mitchell said as the raiders turned onto the main road, the safe fell out of the boot and was recovered when gardai arrived a short time later.

The car was located later on the night after it crashed into a ditch at Fanningstown, Croom.

Mr Harty, whose DNA was found on one of the airbags, will be sentenced later this week.