Training gave him hi-tech expertise

MARTYN Fitzsimmons used his forces training and experience working with the elite troops of the SAS and SBS to help him when he turned to a life of crime.

The former lance-corporal – drummed out of the Army for stealing explosives – was trained in sophisticated communications equipment and anti-surveillance and covert tactics.

And such expertise was crucial to his criminal gang – described by police as the most sophisticated they had ever encountered.

It emerged in court that they used a device that could jam mobile phone signals and encrypted their mobile phones to avoid eavesdropping by investigators.

Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, who took two hours to outline the list of offences, said: “It became apparent to police that the group were conscious of anti-surveillance and police activity and were employing covert and anti-surveillance tactics.”

Co-accused Francis Mulligan was described as the “electronics expert” in court.

But we can reveal that as a soldier, Fitzsimmons was a member of a special unit known as the Close Observation Platoon.

In Belfast, such units spied on some of the most dangerous men and women in the IRA.

Fitzsimmons’s gang used a vast array of highly specialised equipment, including listening devices and phone jammers, to keep ahead of the police.

On several occasions, officers were convinced their covert surveillance had been detected by the gang after members took to meeting in locations such as lock-up garages and even a cemetery.

A £25,000 Orion device used to detect electronic surveillance was among the haul eventually gathered by police.

Another piece of seized equipment used to detect illegal transmissions was said to have a retail value of £39,600.