€1.1m jewellery robber has sentence cut

A MAN jailed for the armed robbery of more than €1.1million worth of diamond rings and watches from a jewellers has had his prison sentence cut on appeal.

Lithuanian national Irmantas Paulauskas, 39, of no fixed abode, had pleaded not guilty to robbery of €1.1million worth of stock from Hartmann jewellers on William Street, Galway city, as well as possession of an imitation firearm with a silencer fitted on the same occasion on February 11, 2015.

He was found guilty by a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court and was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment by Judge Rory McCabe on May 12, 2016. Paulauskas lost an appeal against his conviction yesterday but successfully appealed his sentence.

The three-judge Court of Appeal held that a distinction should be made because the robbery involved imitation firearms rather than actual loaded guns.

Following the robbery, Paulauskas and another suspect were apprehended, restrained and arrested after a struggle. Two other suspects were arrested a little later as they were waiting for a bus from Galway to Dublin.

Mr Justice George Birmingham said the court paid some attention to the fact the robbery involved imitation firearms rather than actual loaded guns. He said robberies involving actual loaded firearms were in a graver category than what the court was dealing with here. It seemed it was proper to draw some distinction, he said.

For that reason, the court felt some limited accommodation was appropriate.

The Court of Appeal identified 13 years as the starting point for the sentence rather than 15.

As in the Circuit Court, one year was discounted from the starting point due to the fact that imprisonment was more difficult for foreign nationals, leaving Paulauskas with a net sentence of 12 years.