Financier ‘in effect used by the IRA’

THE IRA was almost certainly behind the highly organised robbery of £26.5 million from Northern Bank and Ted Cunningham was used by the IRA to launder at least £3m of it, it was claimed yesterday as the 60-year-old was jailed for 10 years.

Superintendent John Healy said the bank robbery was “almost certainly carried out by the IRA”. And defence senior counsel Ciarán O’Loughlin said Ted Cunningham had no part in the robbery but that in respect of laundering the proceeds “he was in effect used by the IRA”.

Supt Healy reminded Judge Con Murphy of the circumstances of the Northern Bank robbery of December 2004. Assistant manager of the Northern Bank cash centre in Belfast, Kevin McMullan, was at home on the night of December 19, 2004, with his wife, Karen. On the pretext of being police, the bank robbers got into the house. Ms McMullan was blindfolded and taken away from the house as her husband was told that if he didn’t comply fully or if anything went wrong, his wife would be killed.