Caught “green-blue handed”, Applied DNA secures first conviction in
Ireland
STONY BROOK, N.Y. -- (Business Wire)
Applied
DNA Sciences, Inc. ( NASDAQ: APDN, “Applied DNA”), today announced
that SigNature® DNA evidence has helped to convict a member of an Irish
organized crime group involved in a Cash in Transit (CiT) robbery.
The robbery in question took place in February 2016. A G4S
cash-in-transit guard was approached by two criminals, one brandishing a
firearm and the other a knife. The criminals escaped with a stolen cash
box in a car driven by Lee Harris, another member of the robbery team.
Harris, a 21-year-old male from Dublin, dropped off the criminals at the
crime scene earlier that day and kept lookout for police while the
robbery took place. Later that evening, Harris was stopped at a police
checkpoint for driving erratically and was subsequently arrested for
drunk driving.
€2,850 in blue/green ink-stained bank notes were found on Lee Harris and
the following day he was charged with armed robbery.
Police contacted Applied DNA to request forensic examination of bank
notes. Within a week, Applied DNA laboratories analyzed samples and
returned an expert witness report to police, forensically linking the
stained bank notes to the specific cash box stolen during the armed
robbery.
Evidence from the expert witness report was used to secure a conviction
against Lee Harris in December 2017. Lawyers acting on behalf of Harris
said he was caught “green-blue
handed” with bank notes that were stained with the security ink
containing a SigNature DNA tag, and he was sentenced to 4 years in
prison.
“This is the first criminal conviction in Ireland secured using
SigNature DNA evidence, and should act as a warning to any other
criminals who may be considering a cash-in-transit attack. Our
ever-increasing tally has now reached 115 criminals convicted for 545
years of jail time,” commented Tony Benson, Applied DNA’s Managing
Director for EMEA.
“Also, this demonstrates the fantastic service provided by Applied DNA
and in particular our forensic laboratory team who analyze these bank
note samples quickly, which is often the subject of special praise,”
commented Dr. James Hayward, president and CEO of Applied DNA.
About Applied DNA Sciences
Applied DNA is a provider of molecular technologies that enable supply
chain security, anti-counterfeiting and anti-theft technology, product
genotyping and DNA mass production for diagnostics and therapeutics.
We make life real and safe by providing innovative, molecular-based
technology solutions and services that can help protect products,
brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies,
governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and
diversion. The proprietary DNA-based “CertainT®” platform can
be used to identify, tag, test, and track products, to help assure
authenticity, origin, traceability, sustainability and quality of
products.
SigNature® DNA describes the core technology ingredient that
is at the heart of a family of uncopyable, security and authentication
solutions such as SigNature® T and fiberTyping®,
targeted toward textiles and apparel, BackTrac™ and DNAnet®,
for anti-theft and loss prevention, and digitalDNA®,
providing powerful track-and-trace. All provide a forensic chain of
evidence, and can be used to prosecute perpetrators. Applied DNA
Sciences is also engaged in the large-scale production of specific DNA
sequences using the polymerase chain reaction.
Visit adnas.com
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The Company’s common stock is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol APDN,
and its warrants are listed under the symbol APDNW.
Forward Looking Statements
The statements made by APDN in this press release may be
“forward-looking” in nature within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe APDN’s
future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on
assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of
which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ
materially from those projected due to our short operating history,
limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market
competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in
APDN’s SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K
filed on December 28, 2017, which is available at www.sec.gov.
APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking
statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the
date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, unless
otherwise required by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180103005606/en/
Contacts:
Investors:
LHA Investor Relations
Sanjay M. Hurry,
212-838-3777
shurry@lhai.com
or
Media:
Dian
Griesel Int’l
Cheryl Schneider, 212-825-3210
cschneider@dgicomm.com
or
Program:
Applied
DNA Europe
Tony Benson, +1 44 (0) 7552 429341
Managing Director
tony.benson@adnas.com
Web:
www.adnas.com
Twitter:
@APDN
Source: Applied DNA Sciences, Inc.
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