Two men have been jailed for 10 and five years at Mullingar Circuit Court for a series of armed robberies in the Midlands.
A 34-year-old Co Westmeath man who carried out some of the robberies after he had been released on bail on two separate occasions has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Anthony Farrell, of Curragh Road, Rosemount in Co Westmeath, was convicted of robbing post offices in Dangan in Co Offaly, Templederry, Co Tipperary, and an attempted armed robbery at Baylough post office in Athlone between October 2005 and 8 June last year.
Farrell was also convicted of robbing a jewellery shop in Abbeyleix, a Gala store in Mountmellick and the West End store on the Magazine road in Athlone during the same period.
He pleaded guilty to all charges.
Judge Anthony Kennedy was told he had been released on bail on two separate occasions while awaiting trial for two of the robberies when he completed two more robberies.
At the same court, 30-year-old Arron Casciani with an address at Battery Heights in Athlone was also convicted of the robberies in Mountmellick and Abbeyleix, the attempted robbery at Baylough, possession of firearms and ammunition.
On passing sentence Judge Anthony Kennedy said both men had shattered the lives of innocent lay people by threatening them with death, doom or destruction during the course of the raids.
He said both men were drug addicts.
He sentenced Farrell to ten years in jail and said Casciani should go to prison for five years.
