A Co. Armagh man who was part of a crime gang who stole a JCB excavator to rip a cash machine from the wall of a filing station, was handed a three year sentence today (Friday).
Jailing Sean-Paul Donnelly at Newry Crown Court, Judge Paul Ramsey KC said while the custodial threshold “is plainly passed,” he was departing from the usual 50/50 split between jail and prison release licence.
Ordering the 25-year-old to serve a year in jail and two under supervised licence conditions, the judge said it was his view the extra licence was required to help him get his life back on track.
Donnelly, from School Terrace in Newtownhamilton, had entered guilty pleas to a total of seven offences including arson and three each of theft and criminal damage, all arising from an incident at 4.30am on December 20, 2022.
The court heard that in a well-planned operation, a gang of thieves stole the JCB excavator and having driven across a field to Fruitfields Petrol Station on the Portadown Road in Armagh, it was used to rio the ATM from the wall.
In an operation which “took less than 60 seconds,” Judge Ramsey recounted how the ATM was then loaded onto a stolen trailer, hitched to a Ford Transit van, and driven away.
ATM stolen at Fruitfield in Richhill
As the thieves fled the scene, the JCB was set alight in an effort to destroy evidence but the judge said there was a tracker on the ATM and police who rushed to the scene, were able to trace the ATM to a field a few miles away
Officers from the PSNI Armed Response Unit disturbed two males who were “about to crack it open with an angle grinder” and as they ran off, police recovered the ATM which was still filled with £10,000.
The judge said Donnelly was linked to the theft by various strands in that the field where the ATM was retrieved, was owned by his grandfather, a black BMX X5 parked nearby had a receipt the defendant could be linked to and when Donnelly’s home was searched, cops uncovered a key to the Ford van used to tow the trailer with the stolen ATM onboard.
Judge Ramsey said while the cash in the ATM was recovered, the thefts and trail of devastation had caused more than £60,000 of damage.
Donnelly denied the offences during police interviews but admitted his guilt earlier this year and has “expressed regret” over his involvement.
