‘Well spoken’ robber who absconded to UK for 20 years given suspended sentence

By Natasha Reid and Fiona Ferguson

A man who carried out a spate of hotel robberies while posing as a well-spoken British guest before fleeing the country for 20 years has been given a 10-year suspended sentence.

The court heard that he had married, raised a family and led a pro-social life in those two decades, and that this was “his past coming back to haunt him”.

Darren White (49), with an address at Belmayne Park, Dublin 17, was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of cash robbery at Dublin City hotels between August and December 2005 and to one count of robbery of a Londis shop the following year.

The value of cash ranged from €50 in one hotel up to €900 in another.

Judge Martina Baxter said there had been a clear element of planning in the offences which targeted individuals, mostly young females on their own, and in some cases involved the use of or threat of a weapon.

She noted White had been a drug addict at the time of the offending and had no prior convictions.

She said after pleading guilty to the offences, he failed to appear on his sentence date and instead travelled to the UK, before returning some years later and starting a family.

Testimonials outlined he was also working and engaged in voluntary work in his community.

She noted his recourse, victim awareness and insight. She said he was clean of drugs and had made substantial changes in his life. He is at low risk of reoffending.

Judge Baxter said that this point in time a custodial term was not appropriate, having regard to the breath of his rehabilitation, and imposed a 10-year sentence, which she suspended for 10 years and ordered him to carry out 240 hours community service.

Garda Maurice Cunningham told his sentence hearing that White had pleaded guilty to the first count in May 2007 and was given bail.

However, he didn’t turn up for his sentence in October of that year, and only came to garda attention again in April 2025 when he was in court on a road traffic matter.

Gda Cunningham explained that, for the most part, White had engaged with the receptionists, enquiring about rooms and telling them he was in Dublin to erect lighting for concerts.

He had often left by the time they noticed cash missing from a drawer or cash box.

However, on other occasions, he was upfront about what he was doing and put the receptionists in fear, but still usually remained quiet and calm.

The court heard that he entered Stephen’s Hall Hotel on Leeson Street at 4.30pm on August 8, 2005.

After spending some time on his own phone, he asked to use the hotel phone.

He then asked for a pen and paper and began writing, before telling the receptionist it was a robbery.

“Don’t move. Sit down and I won’t hurt you,” he said. “Stay there.”

He took €500 in notes from the cash tray.

“Now you know why I’m here,” he said.

“You have me on camera anyway. Bye.”

A few days later, on August 13, he entered Cassidy’s Hotel in the city centre.

After sitting in the reception area for a while, he went behind the desk to the till.

“Don’t move or I’ll kill you,” he said to the receptionist, while holding what looked like a knife.

He managed to take €450 from the till.

The receptionist left her job.

The court heard that many of the receptionists were badly affected by the experience, especially those to whom he showed a knife, which varied between a Swiss army knife on one occasion and a large butcher’s knife and a meat cleaver on others.

Many left their jobs and some even left the country afterwards.

They spoke of their shock when he asked for money, given how calm, well-spoken and polite he had been.

White usually acted alone, but at 9.40pm on September 6, he entered the Clarence Hotel with an accomplice.

The receptionist told gardaí that one of the men took out a large weapon like a machete and waved it at her.

She stepped backwards but cornered herself against a wall and had nowhere else to go.

“He held it within an inch of me,” she told gardaí.

She was told that they were taking the money and not to scream.

The second man went behind the reception desk and took €900 money from a drawer, at which point the night manager opened a door.

The person with the knife warned the manager: “Don’t come down here or you’ll get it,” before both robbers ran out.

After a number of these robberies were reported, gardaí began handing out flyers showing a picture of White to hotels in the city.

The receptionist in the Camden Deluxe Hotel had just seen this flyer by the time White and his accomplice entered the hotel, also on September 6.

Like most of the receptionists in the case, she was working alone. She recognised White from the garda flyer.

He told her they had a knife, and she remarked on how “very calm” he was.

She said that he didn’t use any bad language or produce a weapon, but he said that his friend had a knife.

“We don’t want to hurt you. We want the money in the cash box,” he said.

On September 11, the receptionist at Charleville Lodge Guest House was shaking badly after the two males left, but noticed that White’s accomplice did not put the petty cash into his bag until White asked him to do so.

White was spotted by gardaí walking down Townsend Street three days later.

He was arrested, made full admissions and was charged. He said that he was staying at a hostel, and he was released on bail after spending three nights in custody.

He was still on bail on May 21, 2006, when he and another man robbed a Londis shop in Baldoyle of €530 in cash.

He was arrested on May 29 and made full admissions. He had no convictions at the time and got bail in the courts, surrendering his passport.

However, he later managed to move to the UK, and wasn’t apprehended until last year, after he was stopped for a road traffic offence.

The court was told that he was in his early 30s when he committed the robberies, addicted to heroin, had a drug debt, and had been intimidated by the other man to whom he said he handed over the money.

The court heard that the other man, who was known to gardaí, was under the age of 18, and Gda Cunningham explained that one of the main reasons White wasn’t apprehended was that he was never known to gardaí before this.

Both White and his wife of almost 19 years gave evidence in his defence, White by video link from prison, and his wife in court, on the same day that one of their children was sitting the Leaving Cert.

White explained that he was born in Blanchardstown, but had moved to London in 1981 after his parents separated.

After school, he got a qualification in film and television and worked in event lighting, touring with major artists.

He returned to Dublin when his mother passed away in 1999 and was working freelance in the same industry when he developed an addiction to heroin in his early 20s.

He said that he was addicted for two years up until he was arrested, but had managed to detox then and has had no involvement in drugs since.

“I’d like to apologise and say sorry to all the victims. I have remorse for what I did,” he said.

“I found it very uncomfortable hearing the (victim impact) statements.”

The court heard that he was married by the time he pleaded guilty in court in July 2007.

A few months later, he and his wife moved to the UK, where they raised six children and he worked in film and television.

They returned to Ireland following Brexit and set up their family home in Belmayne, where he became involved in community activities, assisting with local football clubs and playing Santa and the Easter Bunny for a local group.

White accepted that he had walked away from this and that there’s a debt due to society.

The judge asked him why he hadn’t turned up for sentencing.

“I’ll be honest, I got scared of going to jail,” he said.

“I didn’t want to go back into an environment where I was going to be around drugs, and I thought the best thing was to be away from my old network.”

He added that his grandparents had been poorly and that he wanted to help them through the last few years of their lives.

His wife, Sarah Costello, explained that their children, the eldest of whom is in university, found out about their father’s past only weeks before the sentence hearing.

They had thought he was working away while in prison awaiting sentence.

The two youngest still did not know as she gave evidence.

“He always worked at night so he could help out at home,” she said.

“He helped out with their schools. He was a school governor between 2014 and 2016. He is a good husband and father.”

Ms Costello hadn’t worked outside of the home since her eldest child was born, but she told the court that she had now secured a job.

Justin McQuade BL, defending, handed in a number of testimonials, including from White’s employer, who said he would hold his job open for him.

Counsel noted that this would have an emotional impact on his client’s innocent family.

“This is the accused’s past coming back to haunt him,” he said.

He pointed out that the majority of the offending had occurred in a cluster during August and September 2005.

He quoted from a decision of the Court of Appeal in another case involving a first-time offender that ‘absconding while on bail should not be considered aggravating’.