A former HSE home care assistant who made death threats at knife point while raiding post offices has been jailed for four years.
The 49 year old carried out the raids to raise money to visit his fiancée in the US.
Fintan Tindley of Loughmahon Avenue in Mahon, Cork had already pleased guilty to the robbery of South Douglas Road Post Office on the 11th of November last, the attempted robbery of the same post office seven days later, and the robbery of Ballintemple Post Office on the 16th November.
Det Garda Kevin Motherway previously told the court that 49-year-old Tindley had travelled to the US twice in 2022 to visit a woman called Skye.
The pair struck up a relationship online and had become engaged.
Tindley told gardai he was "desperate" to be reunited with his fiancée in the States.
He sent 19,000 euro to his fiancée, but the court heard she had no idea where the funds had come from and was blameless in the offence.
He had been googling a total of nine post-offices in the Cork area around the time the offences were committed.
At lunchtime on November 11th, 2022 Tindley went in to the South Douglas Road post office. He put a knife to the neck of a customer in his seventies, who feared he was going to be cut, and demanded 'all the money' from the postmistress. A sum of €2,380 was stolen from the post office that day.
Just five days later Mr Tindley went to Ballintemple post office at noon and put a knife to the neck of a woman in her forties. He demanded €15,000.
The customer was in fear that she was going to be injured or killed. Tindley left with €1,300.
He returned to the South Douglas Road post office on November 18th and grabbed a woman in her forties and threatened her with a knife as he demanded monies. The woman thought she was going to be stabbed. He fled empty handed when the postmistress hit the panic alarm. He wore a hat and mask during both robberies and the attempted robbery.
Defence Counsel Elizabeth O’Connell, SC, said that the crimes were 'totally out of character', and that the crimes were 'indefensible' and 'traumatic and frightening' for the victims.
In sentencing Judge Colin Daly said that whilst the crimes were 'premeditated' they showed a 'low level of sophistication in execution.'
Judge Daly said that two people impacted by the offences were out of work from the trauma, whilst others had experienced anxiety and suffering because of the incident.
He jailed Tindley for five years suspending the last year of the sentence.
