Microwave money man sent to jail

McKeown was jailed for six years

A robbery getaway driver, who had stained bank notes in his microwave, has been jailed for six years.

Anthony McKeown, 23, from Deerpark Drive in Belfast, agreed to spend a further two years on probation to tackle drink and drug problems.

Belfast Crown Court Judge Tom Burgess told McKeown he played an "essential part" in the cash-in-transit robbery.

A man with a knife confronted a guard after he collected cash from a shop on Glengormley's Farmlea Road in May 2007.

The guard tried to throw it into the van's hatch but missed and the unknown male grabbed it and ran to a waiting car.

The car was found abandoned in Etna Drive in north Belfast and while the cash box was missing, police found the knife used to threaten the guard and when they examined it, they uncovered a finger print of McKeown's.

Four days after the robbery, officers searched McKeown's Deerpark home and found a "bundle of cash with red dye" in the kitchen microwave and a further bundle of notes hidden under the sofa amounting to a total £4,830.

The box had contained a total of £15,640 but the only money recovered was from McKeown's house.

McKeown initially claimed he was only concealing the money for men he refused to name "for fear of his life" but later pleaded guilty to a single count of robbery.

Defence said McKeown had been abusing drugs from his early teenage years to such an extent that he had gotten himself into £6,000 of debt with a dealer and that he had taken part in the robbery in an effort to clear that debt.