A man who tried to rob a building society while dressed as a wealthy wheelchair-using woman has been jailed for this and another attempted robbery.

Thomas Clark, 43, arrived at the building society unshaven and wearing a black wig. He was being pushed in the wheelchair by his 21-year-old accomplice Martin Collins.

Collins had previously made an appointment with the manager on the pretence that a woman he was caring for had been awarded €2.9m by the State and wanted to invest it.

Detective Sergeant Peter Woods told Dara Hayes BL, prosecuting, that the manager of the building society, Michael Doyle, noticed that the "older woman" was wearing what was obviously a black wig when Collins pushed her into his office.

Collins left the wheelchair facing the door, which Mr Doyle thought was strange. Clark then got out of the wheelchair and produced what Mr Doyle thought was a shotgun.

It was then that he noticed that it was a man dressed as a woman and described his face as being round and unshaven.

Clark shouted “Get down on the floor” and Mr Doyle realised the weapon he had in his hand was actually an imitation firearm.

Collins then produced a similar weapon, but this was a hatchet made to look like a gun.

Collins struck Mr Doyle on the back of the leg, causing him to bleed, before the robbers ran from the building society empty-handed to a waiting car and sped off towards Blackrock.

Gardaí arrested them a short time later.

Both Collins of Neilstown Gardens, Clondalkin and Clark with addresses at Keeper Road, Crumlin and Chaplains Place, Clondalkin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempted robbery at Permanent TSB on Lower Kilmadcud Road, Stillorgan on 20 October, 2010.

Clark also pleaded guilty to the attempted robbery of the EBS in Leixlip the following day.

The court heard that while running to escape from pursuing gardaí, Clark jumped into the River Liffey and tried to swim across it.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Clark to consecutive prison terms totalling six years, but suspended the final two years on strict conditions.

He accepted that Clark is "to some degree institutionalised and has not had the best start in life".

Last February, Judge Nolan jailed Collins for three years for his role in the crime.

The court heard that Collins has 55 previous convictions, while Clark has 33. Both were drug addicts at the time.

Det Sgt Woods agreed with Michael O'Higgins SC, defending Clark, that it had been "a venture that was unlikely to be successful".