‘This has really spooked everyone’

A GARDA forensic team yesterday removed a cache of sterling notes from the home of a man arrested for questioning as part of a major investigation into money laundering.

The cash was packed into 17 evidence bags and removed from the home of Ted Cunningham, Farran, Co Cork. Mr Cunningham was arrested on Thursday as part of a major cross-Border investigation into the theft of £26.5 million from the Northern Bank in Belfast before Christmas.

Heavy garda security surrounded Mr Cunningham’s house as the bags were loaded into the back of a jeep before being transferred to garda headquarters under armed escort.

The money was found stuffed into a green wheelie bin at the rear of the bungalow, which Mr Cunningham, a Ballincollig-based money lender, shares with his girlfriend, Cathy Armstrong, and son Timothy.

Farran, a picturesque sleepy village 20km west of Cork city, was given a rude awakening yesterday as television crews descended to record unfolding events.

Sky News, the BBC, ITN, RTÉ and TV3, and the print media, observed from the grounds of nearby Farran Church as members of the Garda Technical Bureau continued their painstaking forensic investigation of the house.

“We have never seen anything like this in our neck of the woods ever before,” said one woman, who has lived in the area all her life.

“This has really spooked everyone here,” she said, asking not to be identified. “People are scared when they hear mention of the IRA. We want nothing to do with that around here.”

A blue and white garda ‘no entry’ tape surrounded the three-bedroom house while inside, the forensic team, clad head to toe in white sterilised overalls, gathered evidence.

Mr Cunningham’s silver Mercedes remained parked in the church grounds, where he had left it before his arrest on Thursday morning.

In the imposing neo-gothic church directly opposite the house, a lone parishioner knelt to pray and light a candle.

Fr Paddy Keating, parish priest of Farran and Ovens, refused to talk to media. “I have nothing to say and no comment to make,” he said. Likewise, locals were reluctant to comment.

“We are all very nervous,” said one trader. “We are not used to this kind of attention around here.”

Mr Cunningham, a company director who owns a financial services business in Ballincollig, is originally from Macroom and is well liked in the locality.

“He is a very nice man, in fact, the whole family are,” said a local woman.