Three members of an organised crime gang have admitted using cash trapping machines and stealing money from over 40 AIB ATM machines in four counties last year.
Codrin Manoli, 26, from Dundrum, Dublin; 32-year-old Cailin Scintei from The Park in Citywest, Dublin and 29-year-old Marius Crisan from Ormond Way in Swords pleaded guilty to a total of 28 offences.
AIB contacted the gardaí last July after it noticed its ATM machines were being damaged.
43 of the machines in Dublin, Louth, Meath and Kildare were targeted in nine days between 4 and 12 July last year by an organised crime gang.
The gang put a cash trapping device into the cash slot, trapping the money before returning later to force it open and steal it.
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They stole over €6,000 and caused over €18,000 worth of damage to the cash machines.
On one day, 6 July last year, they hit nine machines in Dublin alone.
Gardaí from Dundrum and the National Economic Crime Bureau set up an operation and caught three men after they had stolen €1,000 in cash from an ATM in Blackrock.
Manoli, Scintei and Crisan subsequently pleaded guilty to what they had done.
Detective Garda Emmet Cooke told the court that the criminal organisation was set up to commit these offences.
Manoli had no ties to Ireland, Scintei has previous convictions for fraud offences here while Crisan, who the court heard was on the lowest rung of the ladder, has become the father to a baby girl in the last five months.
Detective Garda Aoife Lewis said Crisan had identified himself on CCTV, acknowledged he was driving the car when the gang was arrested, had a gambling problem and needed money urgently for his rent.
The court was also told that all three men are originally from Romania and while Crisan has no previous convictions, Manoli has 16 including convictions in the UK and Scintei has 124.
He had only been released from prison here eight months earlier after he had finished serving a sentence for a similar offence when he was caught again.
Judge Orla Crowe said she will sentence the men on 10 April.
