Man jailed for trying to blow up Cork ATM ‘with internet hodgepodge’

A young man with a drug debt planned to blow up an ATM with a potentially catastrophic gas explosion at a gas station, but the Gardaí patrolman suspected a car parked in the area and thwarted the getaway.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin sentenced 20-year-old Evan Stubbins of Church Road, Croom, County Limerick, to five years in prison in the Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

“This kid had no idea what he was doing except what he learned on the internet, he himself was a blast waiting for that to happen.

With a hodgepodge made from the Internet, he was capable of causing enormous harm to himself and everyone else.

“At the time he was on a suspended sentence from the district court where he had been treated appropriately and with leniency. He proceeded to surf the net and put together some theories on how to blast and carry out this plan near Carrigaline. That is a significant aggravating factor in itself.

“The fact that he put this together in an effort to make an explosion to pay off a drug debt is terrifying to think about: organize it, put it in a car for the purpose of causing an explosion.

“It could have been caused by science. No other intervention would have been necessary. Events could have gotten over it. I don’t think his ignorance of that is a mitigating factor. ”

Defense attorney Ray Boland characterized the crime as a naive attempt with no prospect of success.

Sgt. Chris Cahill said a Togher and Passage West Gardai patrolling the Carrigaline area in the early hours of Aug. 2 saw a Volkswagen Passat parked near an ATM in the driveway of Maxol’s garage.

They approached the defendant and discovered that he had a screwdriver and was attempting to remove a part of the ATM. He made an effort to get away, but they stopped him.

Gardaí discovered that he had two gas canisters tied in the back seat of his car. He also had a lump hammer, a saw, a jumpsuit, and a mask.

A manufacturing engineer consulted by the Gardaí researcher confirmed that pumping the two gases, propane and oxygen, into a confined space behind the ATM would have caused an explosion without the need for it to be turned on. However, in addition to having a garden hose to pump the gas into the space around the ATM, the defendant also had a lighter.

The manufacturing engineer told Gardaí that there was enough gasoline in the car to cause a massive explosion. During a bail request in August, 30,000 liters of gasoline and diesel were found near the scene of this crime.

Sergeant Cahill said Stubbins told them in the interview that he had a drug debt and they told him this was something he could do to pay off the debt, so he went to YouTube to find out how to do it.

Stubbins pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the crime at an AIB ATM in Maxol Garage, Carr’s Hill, Carrigaline, County Cork, on August 2, 2020. The charges included causing criminal damage to the AIB ATM, attempted to robbery and danger with explosives.