€7.6m tiger kidnapping probe progresses with arrest of bank employee

A MASSIVE Garda investigation into the biggest bank robbery in recent years stepped up a gear yesterday with the arrest of a Bank of Ireland employee.

The official was arrested by detectives investigating the robbery of €7.6 million from a Bank of Ireland distribution centre in Dublin city centre on February 27 last.

The heist was carried out after an armed gang targeted a bank worker, his girlfriend, her mother and five-year-old nephew in a tiger kidnapping. Gardaí suspect that a well-known serious criminal from Dublin’s north inner city orchestrated the raid.

The arrest of a bank official appears to back up suspicions that the gang may have had inside information on bank operations and procedures at the cash distribution centre of College Green.

During the raid, bank worker Shane Travers entered the centre and loaded the €7.6m into four laundry bags and walked out within 15 minutes.

He was told by the gang to show a photograph of his abducted family to work colleagues to access the vaults.

Bank staff at the centre failed to alert gardaí immediately – as specified under protocols – sparking severe criticism from Justice Minister Dermot Ahern and Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy.

The bank employee who was arrested, was picked up by gardaí early on Thursday, but details of the development didn’t emerge until yesterday morning.

The man, who was in his 20s, was detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, which allows gardaí to detain him until this morning, at which time they can seek a further detention period of 24 hours.

By Sunday morning, they will either have to release the man or bring charges against him. A citywide Garda operation resulted in the retrieval of €1.7m cash from the raid. Two men have been charged in connection with the cash and are before the courts.

The nightmare for Mr Travers, his girlfriend Stephanie Smith, her mother Joan Smith and her five-year-old nephew began when a gang broke into Stephanie Smith’s home in Kilteel, Co Kildare, late on February 26.

The gang restrained Ms Smith, her mother and her nephew, and, at 5.30am on February 27, bungled them into a blue Peugeot van and drove them to Co Meath.

An hour later Mr Travers was ordered to drive to the cash centre in a red Toyota Celica, at 7am. He went to Clontarf Garda Station at 7.30am where he met a man in a baseball cap, who drove away with the money.

Garda sources say the investigation was “painstaking” and they were steadily building up their case.