Sentence imposed for series of ATM robberies was within the available range

Birmingham P: Criminal Law – appeal against severity of sentence – custodial sentence of eight years and nine months with final 12 months suspended imposed by Special Criminal Court – offence of participating in certain activities – series of ATM robberies at various locations in Monaghan and Cavan – special criminal court was informed that it was the view of the Gardaí that it was the same criminal organisation which was involved in various ATM incidents – appellant submitted that the sentencing court may have been influenced by hearing the evidence of these incidents and fallen into error on the basis that there was some involvement by the appellant with those incidents – no reason to believe that sentencing court was led into error about the earlier ATM incidents – case digger was stolen and driven to an ATM – incident was subject to Garda surveillance – as case digger’s arm was extended towards the ATM, the Garda Emergency Response Unit intervened – collision between Gardaí and the vehicle towing the trailer – two suspects seen fleeing – third suspects seen fleeing from digger – three suspects ran on and was pursued by Gardaí – appellant was arrested – approach of special criminal court to sentencing was to assess gravity and it was placed at the low point of the top tier – whether imposing identical sentence on the appellant in comparison to another co-accused who participated in further criminal activity was inappropriate – whether the headline sentence of 11 years was too high – whether discount post mitigation was inadequate – special criminal court cannot be at fault for placing the offence at the low end of the top tier due to the quite exceptional seriousness – discount of 20% was not an inappropriate one in circumstances where there was no early guilty plea and appellant was caught red-handed – sentence was a severe one but did not fall outside of the available range – no error in principle – appeal dismissed.