Flynn challenges woman’s debt claim

A FORMER Government adviser has challenged claims by an Irish woman, caught up in an IRA money laundering investigation following the Northern Bank raid, that he still owes her money over a controversial business trip to Bulgaria a month after the robbery.

Phil Flynn, a former leading trade unionist and former chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland), has also rejected claims that he had engaged Kathryn Nelson to organise the visit to check out investment opportunities in Bulgaria.

Mr Flynn, a staunch republican and former vice-president of Sinn Féin, was interviewed as part of the investigation into the £26.5 million (€39m) bank robbery in December 2004 after gardaí raided his home.