Fat Freddie Thompson's ex father-in-law Noel Dempsey caught robbing PS4 and printers from courier

Veteran criminal Noel Dempsey and an accomplice were caught after lifting two Canon printers and a PlayStation 4 from the vehicle as the driver made a delivery.

The pair were followed in their Audi A3 by an off-duty garda who had spotted the van's doors slightly ajar in Swords, Co Dublin in November 2019.

After being arrested and charged by uniformed gardai, Dempsey's accomplice, Anthony Cullen from Herberton Park in Rialto, said: "Sure what can I say, I'm caught by the b*****ks".

While Cullen was driving the car when stopped by gardai he had been seen swapping places with Dempsey into the passenger seat. Dempsey did not have a licence or insurance.

The driver of the courier van didn't know the boxes had been stolen from his van until contacted by gardai.

Last week, a bench warrant was issued for both men at Swords District Court after they were convicted of the €490 theft in their absence.

Dempsey, whose daughter Vicky was mob boss 'Fat' Freddie's partner for several years, has a long criminal record going back decades.

At a trial in 2017 over a parking space altercation, it emerged Dempsey had 103 previous convictions dating back to 1970, including road traffic offences, handling or receiving stolen property, theft, drugs and burglary offences.

It was also heard then how Dempsey was suffering from extremely bad health and that he had 21 stents in his heart, had five bypass operations and was in remission from cancer.

Dempsey ended up in court in 2017 along with his son Karl and daughter Vicky following a scuffle in a pet shop over a parking space in February 2011. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in the attack.

Dempsey had nothing to do with the scuffle about the parking space and arrived on the scene to find his son with a cut over his eye, according his defence lawyer.

He said Dempsey had gone into the pet store to prevent Vicky "losing the head" and claimed this had been his only intention.

Dempsey had initially denied charges of assault causing harm to Mark Eagers and violent disorder, but pleaded guilty on the second day of the trial.

Vicky got a two-year suspended sentence in February 2015 after she also pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

She had dragged a woman backwards by the hair as her brother Karl Dempsey was attacking Mr Eagers, it was heard in court.

Karl Dempsey was jailed for 20 months in May 2015 after he pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

The victim was left with a broken nose and a set of keys lodged in his thumb.

The trial judge described it as a savage, unprovoked and cowardly attack and refused to accept that Noel Dempsey's only intention in going into the pet store was to prevent Vicky "losing the head".

He said the CCTV footage showed Noel Dempsey going into the store with "calm determination" to support his son as he set upon the victim.

'Fat' Freddie is currently serving a life sentence for the Kinahan-Hutch feud-related murder of Daithi Douglas in 2016.

Vicky did not attend the murder trial in 2018.