Man charged with €1m robbery claimed he was kidnapped

A man accused of being involved in the armed robbery of €1.1 million worth of rings and watches from a Galway City jewellers claimed he had been kidnapped and refused to accept he had been arrested.

Irmantas Paulauskas (38), of no fixed abode, was wrestled to the ground by detectives, assisted by members of the public, at Middle Street, moments after a four-man armed gang robbed €1.1m worth of diamond rings and Rolex watches from Hartmann Jewellers on William Street in Galway City on the morning of February 11, 2015.

He had arrived in the country from Lithuania in the days before the robbery.

Paulauskas has pleaded not guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court to the robbery of 208 diamond rings and 32 Rolex watches from Richard Hartmann.

He also denies a second charge of having an imitation pistol with a silencer fitted, in his possession with intent to commit robbery on the same date.

His trial, which has entered its second week before a jury of eleven men and one woman, heard evidence today from Detective Sergeant John McElroy.

He said he interviewed Paulauskas at Galway Garda Station on three occasions after his arrest.

Paulauskas maintained at all times that he had been kidnapped and refused to acknowledge he had been arrested and detained by Gardai.

He denied any involvement in the robbery and said he had arrived in Ireland “for no reason” a couple of days before on a ferry from France.

He said he travelled alone and took a bus to Galway on February 11 last year, with €35 in his pockets.

He refused to name the French port he had sailed from and said he was “just wandering around the streets in Galway” before he was kidnapped.

“I thought somebody had taken advantage of me,” he said during interview, aided by an interpreter.

He denied knowing three other Lithuanian men who were arrested with him and denied pointing a gun at female staff in the shop.

In a second interview, Paulauskas told Gardai he did not think they were the police.

“I am imagining I am kidnapped. I will not accept I am in a police station. I was walking around [Galway] and I was kidnapped. I just want to go home,” he said.

Det McElroy said he asked Paulauskas if people in Lithuania had promised him €20,000 to carry out the robbery.

“I was promised nothing,” he had replied.

Paulauskas also denied traveling from Denmark in a van, a week before the robbery took place.

His clothes were taken from him after his arrest, but he denied they were his when later shown to him as exhibits at the Garda station.

He was also shown video footage of the robbery in progress, taken from inside the shop, and denied he was the man pointing a gun at staff.

Mr Bernard Madden SC defending said his client would not be giving evidence.

The jury was sent home for the night and closing speeches in the trial will commence in the morning.