Northern Bank robbery

The Northern Bank robbery was a large robbery of cash from the headquarters of the Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Carried out by a large, proficient group on 20 December 2004, the gang seized £26.5 million in pounds sterling, making it one of the biggest bank robberies in British history. The police and the British and Irish governments claimed the Provisional IRA was responsible (or had permitted others to undertake the raid), a claim vehemently denied by the Provisional IRA itself and the Sinn Féin political party. The robbery, and the allegations and counter-allegations surrounding it, threw the Northern Ireland peace process into crisis.

Outline

Carried out by a large, proficient group on 20 December 2004, the gang seized £26.5 million in pounds sterling, making it one of the biggest bank robberies in British history. The police and the British and Irish governments claimed the Provisional IRA was responsible (or had permitted others to undertake the raid), a claim vehemently denied by the Provisional IRA itself and the Sinn Féin political party. The robbery, and the allegations and counter-allegations surrounding it, threw the Northern Ireland peace process into crisis.

Details of raid

On the night of Sunday December 19, 2004 groups of armed men called at the homes of two officials of the Northern Bank, one in Downpatrick in County Down, the other in Poleglass, near Belfast. Masquerading as police officers, they entered the homes and held the officials and their families at gunpoint. Bank official Chris Ward was taken from Poleglass to Downpatrick, the home of his supervisor Kevin McMullan, while gunmen remained at his home with his family. Subsequently Mr McMullan's wife was taken from their home and held, also at gunpoint, at an unknown location. The following day both officials were instructed to report for work at the bank's headquarters at Belfast's Donegall Square West as normal. They did so, and remained at work after the close of business, and later in the evening they gave admittance to other members of the gang.

The robbers entered the bank's cash handling and storage facility. This held an unusually large amount of cash, in preparation for distribution to ATMs for the busy Christmas shopping season. Cash was transferred to one or several vehicles (possibly including a white "Luton" van) at the premises' Wellington Street entrance, and the gang fled. Shortly before midnight the gang holding the Ward family left, and those holding Mrs McMullan released her in a forest near Ballynahinch.

The haul included £10m of uncirculated Northern Bank sterling banknotes, £5.5m of used Northern Bank sterling notes, £4.5m of circulated sterling notes issued by other banks, and small amounts of other currencies, largely Euros and U.S. Dollars.

Interviewed after the raid, several experts said that taking the Northern Bank notes was foolish, as, apart from some tourist destinations, they were essentially useless outside of Ireland and Scotland, and that anyone attempting to pass them in Ireland would quickly arouse suspicion. Following the raid, the Northern Bank announced that it would recall all £300 million worth of its banknotes in denominations of £10 or more, and reissue them in different colours with a new logo and new prefixes to the serial numbers. The first of these new notes entered circulation on March 11, 2005.

Initial responses

Although the police initially refused to be drawn as to who might be involved, a number of commentators (including journalist Kevin Myers writing in the Daily Telegraph quickly blamed the Provisional IRA, saying that only it had the wherewithal to conduct such a professional operation in the province. One senior police officer quoted in The Guardian newspaper said: "This operation required great expertise and coordination, probably more than the loyalist gangs possess." [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,1378547,00.html

Investigations were conducted by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. On 7 January 2005 Hugh Orde, the service's Chief Constable, issued an interim report in which he blamed the Provisional IRA for the robbery. The British and Irish governments concurred with Orde's assessment, as did the Independent Monitoring Commission (the body appointed by the Irish and British governments to oversee the Northern Ireland ceasefires). Sinn Féin, however, denied the Chief Constable's claim, saying the IRA had not conducted the raid and that Sinn Féin officials had not known of or sanctioned the robbery. Martin McGuinness said that Orde's accusation represented "nothing more than politically-biased allegations.... This is more to do with halting the process of change which Sinn Féin has been driving forward than with anything that happened at the Northern Bank." Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, on the other hand, said that "an operation of this magnitude... has obviously been planned at a stage when I was in negotiations with those that would know the leadership of the Provisional movement."

On January 18 2005, the Provisional IRA issued a two-line statement denying any involvement in the robbery: "The IRA has been accused of involvement in the recent Northern Bank robbery. We were not involved.".

Arrests and investigation developments

17 February

On 17 February the Gardaí announced it had arrested seven people and recovered over £2 million, including £60,000 in Northern Bank notes, during raids in the Cork and Dublin areas, as part of ongoing investigations into money laundering. The Gardaí did not officially confirm that the raids were related to the Northern Bank robbery, but made the arrests under the Offences Against the State Act, the republic's chief anti-terrorism law. Those arrested are reported to include several men from Derry and a former Sinn Féin councillor. A suspected Real IRA member was arrested at Heuston Station, along with two others. Money to the sum of €94,000 was found in their vehicle, in a washing powder box. One of the men, Don Bullman from Co. Cork, was charged on February 18th at the Special Criminal Court with IRA membership.

18 February

On 18 February, Gardaí in Passage West arrested a man found to be attempting to burn sterling banknotes. Two men in Dublin were released from questioning, as was the Sinn Féin member in Cork.

A top Irish businessman and associate of the Taoiseach, Phil Flynn, stepped down from a number of positions pending the outcome of a Gardaí investigation into Chesterton Finance, of which he is a non-executive director. He stepped down as chairman of a government body overseeing decentralisation, as well as giving up a position on the board of VHI and as chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland).

Police in Northern Ireland recovered £50,000 in unused Northern banknotes at Newforge Country Club, a sports and social club in Belfast for off-duty and retired police officers, owned by the PSNI's Athletic Association. The PSNI stated it was a diversion, but it is being investigated.

19 February

Police confirm the money found at the Newforge Country Club was part of the £26 million from the bank robbery.

October 2005

On 12 October, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy told a law enforcement conference in Dublin that he was satisfied that the money recovered in Cork in February came from the Northern Bank robbery ^*. Phil Flynn was charged on a minor firearms offence (possession of a pen gun) and released.

November 2005

On 2 November the PSNI arrested two men in Kilcoo, County Down, as part of a pre-planned operation in connection with the robbery. Sinn Fein's Willie Clarke says that the two arrested are not members of his party. An alleyway, apparently near the scene of the arrests, was cordoned off. Later during the day a third man was arrested in Belfast.

On 3 November two more people were arrested, one from Dungannon and one from Coalisland, bringing the total number of people arrested during the operation to five. All five were questioned in the PSNI's Serious Crime Suite in Antrim police station. It was reported that in the early hours of the morning, crowds blocked the road between Castlewellan and Newry near Kilcoo with burnt-out vehicles.

Hugh Orde has defended the police action as "proportionate" and has given his full backing to the detectives handling the operation. Sinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew condemned the raids as a "political stunt".

On 4 November, Dominic McEvoy, a 23-year-old builder among those arrested in Kilcoo on Tuesday, appeared in a Belfast court charged in connection with the robbery. The charges are: false imprisonment of bank official Kevin McMullan and his wife; possession of a firearm with intent to commit a crime; and the robbery itself. The court was told by the prosecution that McEvoy's DNA was found on a hat left at the McMullan house. McEvoy denied any involvement in the robbery, and denied that he was a member of the Provisional IRA.

One of the five arrested during Tuesday and Wednesday has been released. The individual arrested in Dungannon has been named as Brian Arthurs, a member of Sinn Féin.

On 7 November, Martin McAliskey, a 42-year-old Coalisland man, was charged with making false statements to police in relation to a white Ford Transit van allegedly used in the robbery.

On 9 November a third man was charged in relation to the robbery. He was accused of collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists and having documents likely to be of use to terrorists.

On 29 November police investigating the raid arrested Chris Ward and searched his home. They also confirmed that another bank employee, an unnamed 23 year old woman, was also arrested on the same day. ^*

December 2005

On 2 December PSNI raided Casement Park, the Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in Belfast, and the related Social Club. The outraged GAA reported the matter to the Dublin government.

On 7 December, Chris Ward, one of the Northern Bank employees whose family was held hostage, was charged with the robbery. Belfast Magistrates' Court was told that the prosecution case was based on Ward's actions in the days preceding and during the raid, and a suspicious work rota, as well as discrepancies in Ward's original statements to police. Ward denied the charge and said that police had harassed him and his family in an attempt to frame him. He also complained that he had been held in police custody for an unprecedented eight days under the Criminal Justice Act before being charged. ^*

References

BBC timeline of the robbery

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