A retail betting shop located in Swords, Dublin, became the site of an armed robbery on Saturday morning. As reported by the Sunday World, the perpetrator is also facing accusations of having been connected to two robberies that occurred in the area last December. Local authorities were able to successfully detain the suspect following the Saturday incident, and he was subject to questioning under Section 4 of Ireland’s Criminal Justice Act, 1984.
According to a spokesperson of Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police force, the suspect worked alone and threatened the betting shop’s staff with a knife, after which he took off with an undisclosed sum of money in addition to the employees’ phones. None of the shop’s employees were reported to have sustained injuries, and they received their devices back after his arrest. The stolen cash was also recovered.
The incident is the latest in a series of alleged robberies that the perpetrator is presumed to have been involved in. In addition to breaking the law on January 6th, he is also facing charges for two other robberies that, too, occurred in Swords. The first one took place on December 15th, while December 17th saw the second robbery being committed.
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The January 6th incident is far from the first time a betting shop has been the target of criminals in Ireland. In September and October 2023, several robberies, along with one robbery attempt, all of which involved retail bookmakers, occurred in Tipperary. According to The Irish Independent, the perpetrator, Declan Murphy from Kildare, also wielded a knife. He was reported to have used the weapon to demand that the sportsbooks’ members of staff hand over money.
Murphy first stole €3,500 from a Ladbrokes-owned betting shop on September 28th. The second time his attempt at robbing a retail sportsbook ended in success was on October 12th, when he escaped with €800 stolen from yet another Ladbrokes location. His third successful criminal act was committed on October 15th, when he entered the Bar One Racing Unit 2 establishment and fled with €3,000. In addition to the aforementioned offences, Murphy had also attempted to rob another Bar One Racing betting shop.
Early October was not uneventful either since, as reported by the Irish Examiner, a man from Cork faced charges for targeting a Ladbrokes sportsbook location. Instead of an armed robbery in broad daylight, however, the situation involved 42-year-old John Paul Thornton committing a burglary by breaking into the retail betting location’s building at night. Irish authorities were able to arrest and detain Thornton soon after the incident, and after admitting to having committed the deed, he was handed a 10-month prison sentence. Thornton’s criminal record includes five counts of robbery, and he has also been convicted of burglary and theft on multiple occasions.
- Author
Daniel Williams
