"In my thirty-four years in the police force, Stephen Fallon is easily the stupidest criminal I’ve ever encountered," Sergeant Tom Waters told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. "He has a long history of armed robbery, and of getting caught. But I mean, he’s so lazy he can only be bothered to rob shops near his own house, which are owned by people who know who he is. So, when he decided to hold up his local post office, he wore a false beard, in the belief that no one would be able to identify him afterwards from the security camera video.

"Trouble is, he’d forgotten that, through out the 1980’s, he used to wear a beard. So, when he robbed the post office, he looked exactly like he used to look then, only slightly older. I recognised him the moment I began watching the security video, and we’d arrested him within thirty minutes of the robbery taking place. He really thought he’d committed the perfect crime, and still can’t understand how we were able to identify him. When we asked for his name he said ‘Steven Ballon’. It’s pitiful really".

Fallon was jailed for seven years.