Dutch jail for £5m hijack driver
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• An Irish truck driver has been sentenced to 18 months' jail in the Netherlands for his part in the hijacking of his employer's truck and its £5m cargo.
Thomas Massey, 37, was arrested by Dutch police in a warehouse raid near Amsterdam airport on 5 March, as the computer components were being unloaded by the thieves.
The truck, which belonged to Dublin-based Walsh Western, had left the Hewlett-Packard plant in Co Kildare, driven by Massey, on its way to a consignee in Holland; but it was hijacked en route.
However, police in Ireland, Britain, and the Netherlands had been monitoring the truck's movements and swooped as it was being unloaded by the fiveman gang.
Massey claimed he had been acting under duress following threats against his family by a criminal gang which forced him to participate in the robbery.
The court heard that Massey had received £1,500 and had been promised £40,000 as his share. It was his first offence.
Also sentenced to two-and-ahalf years by the court was the gang's leader, George Mitchell, a major Dublin criminal living in Amsterdam, who had fled Ireland when police cracked down on the underworld following the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.