Post Office robber Noel Lavy jailed for six years
THREE Derry who carried out a vicious robbery on a Post Office in Donegal have been jailed for a total of 18 years.
The three men were sentenced this afternoon at a sitting of Letterkenny Circuit Court.
Noel Lavy, David Knight and Joseph McMullan had a staggering 300 previous convictions between them.
The three men carried out the vicious attack using a stolen Royal Mail Van on October 4 last year.
The drug-crazed robbers dressed up in hi-visibilty jackets before traveling to Manorcunningham to carry out the raid.
The men, armed with a hatchet, knife and hammer, terrified the postmistress before making a break for the border with €2,972 in cash from the hold up.
The men initially tried to break down a locked door of the post office before realising the door beside it was actually open.
But unknown to the men, Gardai had been tipped off by their counterparts in the PSNI in Derry that a Royal Mail van had been hi-kjacked in Derry earlier in the day.
Detectives were patrolling the border and managed to use a stinger device to bring the getaway mail van to a shuddering halt.
All three men were arrested had pleaded guilty an earlier hearing to the charges.
Detective Garda Rosemary Rooney recounted the terrifying experience which the gang put the postmistress through.
The court heard how Ms Kathleen Diver saw the men in hi-viz jackets coming past the window of her post office carrying weapons and pressed the alarm.
However, the men burst into the premises and smashed up the entire promises using the hammer and hatchet.
The terrified postmistress, who did not come to court, threw the cash at the robbers.
The owner of a hairdressing salon next door, Ms Amanda Devenney, managed to contact Gardai who rushed to the scene and also gave chase.
Post Office robber David Knight
All three men, David Knight, who is 37 and from 25 Melmore Gardens; Noel Lavy, also 37 and from 57 Ballymagowan; and Joseph McMullan, 25, who is from 5 Kavanagh Court, were arrested a short time later despite trying to flee across fields when the tyres of the mail van was burst by the Garda stinger.
The court heard how all three men came from deprived backgrounds and all had issues with drugs.
Barrister Damien Crawford said the raid was carried out with little planning and by men who were all high or under the influence of drugs.
“Short of driving a red fire engine or Dr Who’s tardis and wearing hi viz jackets they could be not more conspicuous,” he said.
Passing sentence today, Judge John Aylmer jailed Lavy and McMullan for six years, with the last three years suspended on a bond of €100 that they be of good behaviour for a period of two years following their release.
Knight was handed down a six year sentence with the last two years suspended on a similar bond.
Lavy was also banned from driving by the judge for one year.
All the sentences have been back dated to October of last year as the drugged up robbers had been in custody since their arrest.
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