A 49-YEAR-OLD actor who starred in the Love/Hate TV series has been jailed for four and a half years after he admitted carrying out a €50,000 armed robbery.
Stephen Clinch, who played dangerous and violent criminal 'Noely', in the hit RTÉ series, held a loaded semi-automatic pistol to the head of a security worker collecting overnight cash from a bar at The Gate Hotel, Parnell Street, Dublin on May 11, 2015.
Clinch, of Millbrook Grove, Kilbarrack, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a firearm with intention to commit robbery and to robbery of €50,730.
The court heard on Tuesday he had a history of heroin addiction and had many previous convictions including 17 robbery and 13 burglary offences.
Clinch had no serious convictions from 2004 until the armed robbery and told gardaí he had not used heroin in nine years.
Singer Damien Dempsey, Love/Hate producer Stuart Carolan and film director Mark O'Connor were among those who provided character references for Clinch.
One victim of the hold-up, Diraj Boodho, who was responsible for lodging the hotel bar's takings, told the court the robbery has left him afraid to leave the house.
"I could have been murdered," he said.
Clinch claimed he did not want to commit the robbery and said he did it because he owed €8,000 after a consignment of drugs he had been given to hide was discovered.
Judge Martin Nolan said it was a "incredibly frightening" robbery.
