Gerry Hutch

Gerard “Gerry”^[1] Hutch is an Irish criminal. He was the prime suspect for two of the biggest armed robberies in Irish history. Known for leading a “disciplined, ascetic lifestyle” since leaving prison in 1985, he was nicknamed “The Monk” by Veronica Guerin, an investigative journalist who was assassinated in 1996.^[4][5][6]

Early life

Born in central Dublin, his criminal career began at the age of 10.^[4] At some point in the 1970s, Hutch joined the Bugsy Malone Gang of inner city youngsters (named for the Bugsy Malone film), which he later led, and whose crimes included “jump-overs” – jumping over bank counters, grabbing cash and running.

He was later part of a gang involved in major robberies and received many convictions between 1970 and 1983 intermittently spending time in prison.^[7] His gang was said to have amassed an estimated IR£40 million from a series of bank robberies, jewellery heists, and fraud scams spanning almost eight years. Hutch has also been awarded money from legal actions in Irish courts. These included £8,500 won from Securicor Ireland in June 1991, £2,000 from the Sunday Tribune newspaper in a libel action and around £26,000 won in legal actions against the Irish state.^[4]

Hutch admitted to being a “convicted criminal” in a 2008 interview with The Independent, but insisted that he made his money through property deals, not crime.^[8][9]

Corinthians Boxing Club

In 1998 he was a founding member of the Corinthians Boxing Club in Dublin and has served as treasurer for the club. The club has a full gym and a boxing ring. The latter was donated by film director Jim Sheridan after making the film The Boxer.

Criminal Assets Bureau

In 1999, in the course of court proceedings brought against Hutch by the Irish state’s anti-money laundering agency, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), Detective Chief Superintendent Felix McKenna stated that Hutch had been involved in the IR£1.7 million robbery of an armoured van at Marino Mart in January 1987 and the £3 million armed robbery of a Brinks Allied Security Depot in Clonshaugh, County Dublin, in 1995, which had been the largest cash robbery in the State at the time.^[4][10]

Hutch eventually reached an £1.2m settlement with the CAB to “cover back taxes and interest for a nine-year period”.