A 43-year-old man who used a stolen digger to smash a bank wall has been found guilty of stealing an ATM which contained over €124,000.

A jury at Sligo Circuit Court took less than an hour to convict Bernard Quigley, with an address at Branchfield, Drumfin, Co Sligo, who had denied three charges in connection with the incident.

During the three week trial the jury heard that a Komatsu digger was used to rip the ATM safe out of the wall of the Bank of Ireland at Teeling Street, Tubbercurry in the early hours of 29 January 2014 .

The court heard that it cost €40,000 to repair the bank wall and restore the ATM.

After the jury unanimously convicted Quigley of three charges Judge Francis Comerford praised members of the public who had alerted gardaí.

He also praised the Garda investigation saying he disagreed with a claim that it had been "a shambles".

He will sentence the accused tomorrow.

The jury of seven men and five women had been told the stolen ATM had fallen off the back of a trailer almost immediately after the culprits drove away from the bank at speed.

During the trial there was evidence gardaí were alerted by witnesses within minutes.

They discovered a white van, trailer and the ATM abandoned on a country road at Carrowneden, Coolaney, not far from the scene of the theft.

The keys were in the van and the lights were still on.

In her summing up, Eileen O'Leary SC prosecuting said gardaí were unlucky not to have caught the culprits red-handed.

Counsel told the jury that the defendant's DNA was found at four locations and on three vehicles connected with the theft, including on the handles of the stolen digger.

The jury was told that suspicious items, including metal cutting equipment which gardaí believed would have been used to open the ATM, were found in an isolated forest the day after the robbery.

Alan Toal, counsel for the accused, told the jury there were gaping holes in the case.

The defendant's partner Bride Wynne said he had left her home in Coolaney at around 7pm or 8pm on the night of the robbery .

In her statement she said Quigley was "drowned wet" when he returned the following day.

He told her he had run out of petrol and had to walk home.

Bread delivery man Declan Egan told the trial he saw a digger knocking down a bank wall as he drove through Tubbercurry, Co Sligo just after 5am on the morning of the robbery.

The witness, who dialled 999, said the culprits drove off at speed but had gone only about 15 metres when the ATM machine fell into the middle of the road.

They had to return to retrieve it.

Another witness Paul Murphy told the court that his mother who lives across the road from the bank had rang him around 5am that morning and said: "They are knocking down the bank".

He dialled 999, drove to the scene and ended up following the thieves out an isolated road in his car.

He was talking to gardaí on the phone all the time.

Judge Comerford said Mr Murphy had done a considerable public service but he was glad he had the good sense to reverse away when he felt under threat.

The Judge added that it was laudable that gardaí had such support from the community.

The accused had denied dishonestly appropriating an ATM containing cash on 29 January 2014.

He also denied being in possession of a stolen digger, and of causing criminal damage to a wall and ATM housing at Teeling Street, Tubbercurry on the same date.