A MEMBER OF one of Ireland’s most notorious criminal family’s was jailed today for four years after he helped hide an automatic pump-action sawn-off shotgun in an outside toilet of a house, and then fled from armed gardaí in a dangerous high-speed chase.

Ger Dundon, 32, with an address in London, and formerly of Hyde Road, Limerick, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court, to possessing a restricted firearm without a license at Bruff, Co Limerick, on February 26, 2017.

Dundon, who had no previous convictions for firearms offences, was also given a 10-year road ban, after pleading guilty to two counts of dangerous driving and one count of endangering the public, on the same date, as he was pursued by members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU).

Dundon’s co-accused Liam ‘Lika’ Casey, aged 35, of Hyde Road, Limerick, pleaded guilty to possessing a restricted firearm without a license, at the same location, on the same date.

Casey, who had four previous convictions under the Firearm and Offensive Weapons Act, was jailed for five years.

A third accused Robert Kelly, aged 31, with an address at Edenderry, Co Offaly, was jailed for three years, after pleading guilty to possession of a pump-action shotgun for an unlawful purpose, at the same location and on the same date.

All three of the men’s sentences were backdated to February 26 last year.

Gardaí acting on confidential information had set up a garda surveillance operation in Bruff. Members of the covert garda unit observed the three accused arrive at a house and pass a jacket between one another in which something was “wrapped”.

Gardaí pursued the there accused when they saw them leaving the house, located on the town’s Main Street.

During the high-speed pursuit, a car carrying the three defendants, and being driven by Dundon, became “airborne” after it hit a speed ramp in the car park of the Crescent Shopping Centre in Limerick city.

The three defendants were arrested when the car lost control and struck another vehicle before coming to a halt after collided with a wall.

In a follow-up search operation, gardai recovered the gun at a house in Bruff.

In court as the three defendants were led away to begin their sentences Dundon gave a double ‘thumbs up’ salute to supporters.

Ger Dundon’s brothers Dessie, Wayne and John, are all serving life sentences for different murders.