Member of ‘hit team’ jailed for eight years by Special Criminal Court

A member of a “hit team” has been jailed for eight years by the Special Criminal Court for having a Beretta handgun and silencer after a confrontation with armed gardai during which an officer opened fire on a jeep.

The three-judge court heard Owen Cummins had driven the jeep straight towards gardaí in a narrow roadway as they restrained his co-accused on the ground. One of the officers drew his firearm at the defendant as he had feared for his life and that of the man he was restraining on the ground.

When the garda discharged his gun, the jeep veered to the side and smashed into a parked car while “accelerating at 95 per cent capacity”, the court was told.

Cummins (41) with an address at St Attracta Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty at the three-judge court last November to possessing a Beretta handgun and silencer two years ago.

Cummins was charged with possessing a firearm, namely a Beretta 92s handgun and silencer in such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable inference that he had not got it in his possession for a lawful purpose at Jamestown Road, Inchicore, Dublin 8 on September 6, 2017.

Passing sentence today, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said Cummins had recently suffered a personal tragedy when his 19-year-old child died in a road traffic accident. “His attendance at the funeral was not logistically feasible and he had adopted a realistic stance to that matter,” said the judge.

Mr Justice Hunt noted that Cummins’ barrister had submitted that his participation was at the “lowest part of the pyramid” and he had been persuaded by those higher up to act as driver of the van and had been exploited in this way.

The firearm was of a lethal variety and there was a bullet in the breach ready for use, continued the judge.

He said the appropriate headline sentence was 12 years but as a result of the mitigating circumstances including his guilty plea, he would reduce the headline sentence from 12 years to nine years and six months.

A further 18 months was suspended in order to encourage the defendant’s rehabilitation.

Mr Justice Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Dermot Dempsey, sentenced Cummins to nine years and six months imprisonment with the final 18 months suspended. It was backdated to May 27 2019 when he went into custody.

Garda ‘information’

At Cummins’ sentence hearing, Detective Superintendent Dave Gallagher who was previously attached to the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, summarised the facts of the case.

Caroline Cummings BL, for the State, said that on September 6th, 2017, gardai had “confidential information” that several men were actively targeting another person in Ballyfermot, Dublin 10.

Det Supt Gallagher also confirmed that “intelligence” led gardaí to believe that the men had a white Citroen Berlingo van and a firearm.

Det Supt Gallagher briefed gardai to patrol the area with “high visibility” in a bid to prevent any threat to life.

Gardaí located the Citreon Berlingo van near Raheen Park and Garda Stephen Gillespie noticed there was a nervous-looking man in the driver’s seat.

The court heard that as gardaí carried out a registration check, the van sped off onto Kylemore Avenue “narrowly missing a vehicle”.

Garda Gillespie and his colleagues put on their blue lights and siren and followed the van which headed towards the Naas Road. The van failed to stop at a stop sign, prompting other drivers to take action for their own safety, the court was told.

It continued to move at speed along Kylemore Way where a civilian witness saw the driver pass a “plastic bag” to the van’s passenger who, in turn, threw the Dunnes Stores bag out the window.

Det Supt Gallagher told the court that Kylemore Way is effectively a “dead end” for cars as there are bollards present.

The court heard the van stopped at these bollards and the chasing garda car collided with the rear passenger side of the van.

Two men then exited the van, and ran towards a parked Hyundai Tucson jeep.

The passenger, Andrew O’Keeffe, was apprehended by Garda Gillespie and tackled to the ground beside the jeep, while the driver of the Citreon Berlingo van, Cummins, got into the driver’s seat of the jeep.

O’Keeffe (30) from Drumcliff Road, Cabra West, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty in June 2018, to possessing a 9mm Beretta handgun and silencer in suspicious circumstances at Kylemore Way in Inchicore, Dublin, on the same date. He was sentenced to nine years with one year suspended in August 2018.

Cummins then started the jeep and revved the engine loudly, as two of Garda Gillespie’s colleagues tried to break the driver’s seat window.

Det Supt Gallagher told the court that Cummins drove straight towards Garda Gillespie who was on the ground restraining O’Keeffe and that Garda Gillespie believed his and O’Keeffe’s lives were “in danger” at this point.

Garda Gillespie waved his firearm and discharged a gunshot in an attempt to dissuade Cummins from hitting him and O’Keeffe with the jeep.

Shot fired

The court heard after the shot was fired, Cummins swerved, “narrowly missing” Garda Gillespie and O’Keeffe. Instead, the jeep hit an unoccupied and parked Volkswagen Passat.

Ms Cummings said that the VW Passat was moved 2.4 metres by the collision and that tests later showed the jeep was accelerating at 95 per cent of capacity when it struck the VW Passat.

The court heard Cummins then drove towards Garda Gillespie’s two garda colleagues, who were standing in front of the jeep, before it drove at speed down Jamestown Road towards Inchicore.

The jeep was later abandoned, the court was told.

Det Supt Gallagher told the court that CCTV harvested by gardaí led them to identify Cummins as having gone into The Black Lion pub in Inchicore after he abandoned the jeep and that he later took a taxi from the pub to his home.

An analysis of phone traffic details and IP addresses also revealed Cummins as the person who sourced and bought the Citroen Berlingo and Hyundai Tucson.

It also heard that Cummins has 68 previous convictions. These include 36 road traffic offences; 12 circuit court convictions, all in relation to robberies at services stations and shops in 2008; and 20 district court convictions for theft and minor drugs offences.

Michael O’Higgins SC, for Cummins, a former heroin addict who is now drug-free, told the court that another person, who is “extremely insulated from any form of detection”, was “pulling strings” and giving Cummins instructions.

He said Cummins had just returned from Spain with a drug debt, and had no job or money when he agreed to being a driver for the gunman.