THE managing director of cash-in-transit firm Brinks Allied and his wife were put through a terrifying ordeal when an armed gang abducted the couple and forced the businessman to hand over €170,000.

The ordeal began at 9pm on Friday night when three armed and masked men forced their way into the home of Bill Hoyne and his wife Shirley in Monasterboice in Co Louth. The couple were then tied up.

At 6am, one of the men left the family home with Shirley Boyce in her silver Mercedes (02 D 43757). She was bound, gagged and blindfolded.

She was taken to a derelict house on the Howth Road in Dublin and locked in a shed at the back of the house, still bound, gagged and blindfolded.

Meanwhile, the other two armed men forced Bill Hoyne to drive to the Brinks Allied security depot in Clonshaugh, Dublin, at 7.30am. They accompanied him in his silver Toyota Landcruiser (01 KE 843) and warned him his wife would be murdered if he did not get them a substantial amount of cash. One of the men got out of the car at Balbriggan cemetery. The second man got out of the car just outside Hoyne's workplace.

The Brinks director left Clonshaugh at 8.30am with around €170,000 and drove to Thatch Road in Whitehall, north Dublin. He left his jeep with the cash in it as instructed and left the scene on foot. The car was later found burnt out in Ashbourne, Co Meath.

Meanwhile, the Dublin fire brigade was called to the scene on the Howth road as Mrs Hoyne's car had been set alight. While attending the scene, fire officers heard screaming coming from the shed and they discovered the terrified woman bound and gagged in the shed at around 10am. Gardaí are appealing for witnesses.