Buglar who impersonated garda during robbery to be jailed

By Niamh O‘Donoghue

A burglar who impersonated a garda and took €3,000 from two pensioners while ostensibly doing a raid, did not attend his sentencing hearing.

Anthony Carroll (43) of St Atttracta’s Road, Cabra, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary and impersonating a garda on January 28, 2024. The cash was never recovered, the court was told.

Detective Garda Ruairi O’Connor told the court that both residents lived in an apartment on the second floor and went to bed early and awoke at 4.15am and saw a light on in the hall.

The accused was standing in front of the injured party in the hall wearing a monkey hat and dark clothing. Carroll was holding a crowbar and said: “raid on here” and “I’ve two colleagues next door doing a raid,” leading the man to believe it was a garda.

Carroll would not let him past and the man did not want to push past him as thought he was a guard. Carroll was looking through drawers in the bedroom and the injured party’s partner woke up.

Carroll said he was looking for drugs and he would take cash “as there was money laundering going on”. The injured party had €2000 behind his washing machine which were savings and Carroll told him he would be in trouble if he did not give it to him. The injured party gave him €3000 in total.

At one point he asked for their phones and told them they could get their phones back from Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station or another garda station. They could not understand why he said they could get them back from two different garda stations. They had no phones to call the garda stations as Carroll had taken them.

The couple saw him going up Constitution Hill and realised Carroll was not a guard and rang the police. Gardai seized a Ted Baker gift box where the money was stored, and it was sent to Forensic Science Ireland and Carroll’s fingerprint was a match.

CCTV was harvested and the injured parties were interviewed. Carroll was arrested and detained on February 5, 2025, where he made admissions and was co-operative. He did not have much of a recollection of the incident but did identify himself on CCTV. The money was never recovered. Both pensioners were 71 and made no victim impact statements.

Carroll has 31 previous convictions including one for robbery, three for handling stolen property, criminal damage and four road traffic offences.

Under cross-examination, the garda agreed with Luigi Rea BL, defending, that Carroll could not remember being there and said he was appalled by his actions telling gardai “I’m here to get this off my conscience.”

Counsel said he was abusing cocaine and that he told gardai “I’m going back to my meetings” and that he was a Born-Again Christian.  He has two kids and lives in Cabra. He worked in a mortuary and now has a safe pass appearing in court in a high-vis vest.

The injured parties had absolutely nothing to do with drugs, the court was told.

Judge Martina Baxter asked counsel if Carroll was working but Mr Rea said his client was on Jobseeker’s Allowance and working in the black economy.

“It’s a horrible offence,” said the judge before adjourning the case to May 20/today. The judge said Carroll would have to be drug-free by then and to inform her if he came to their attention of gardai in the meantime.

The judge said he had to do an assessment for community service and he would have to pay for his own urinalysis. 

However, Carroll did not appear for his sentencing as the court heard he had an emergency.

Detective Garda Deirdre McDonnell informed the court Carroll had texted his solicitor to say someone had fallen down the stairs.

Judge Baxter noted Carroll’s record of “duplicity” before adjourning sentencing to the beginning of the summer court term.