Girlfriend turns in Irish bank robber

AN Irishman suspected of carrying out a string of two dozen armed bank robberies was turned in by his girlfriend, according to investigators and court documents in the US.

Adam Lynch confessed to his girlfriend that he was the Ho Hum Bandit in a desperate bid to win her back, it is alleged.

The couple were in the middle of a break up largely over arguments about where he managed to find a large amount of cash.

But she also appears to have been annoyed after seeing emails revealing Lynch was in touch with an ex-girlfriend and he lied about visits to another state.

Minutes after the confession, Julia Lundstrom stepped out of the Denver Irish bar where they were meeting for late evening drinks — and phoned the police to tell them she was with the prolific bank robbing bandit, police said.

Lynch, 34, originally from north Dublin before moving to the US with his family when he was 18, is charged with one count of robbing a bank by force or violence.

But the FBI is investigating a further 24 robberies, 10 in Colorado, 12 in California, one in Wyoming and one in Washington state.

Witnesses have positively identified Lynch in some of those robberies, according to documents filed in a federal court in Denver, where he is being detained after bail was refused.

Judge Craig Shaffer, in his judgment refusing bail, wrote: “Government counsel advised the court of incriminating statements attributed to the defendant and related to investigators by the defendant’s girlfriend regarding bank robberies committed in other states.”

Details of Ms Lundstrom’s involvement in the capture of Lynch were revealed by a Denver police investigator.

Adam Acierno described how the couple had been living together in rented accommodation but split up.

They decided to meet at the Fado Bar in downtown Denver on April 18 to discuss their future.

Lynch decided to come clean about where he got $6,000 (€4,205) he had just recently deposited in her bank account.

“He showed her the FBI website on his mobile phone and she saw his picture and that he was wanted for bank robbery,” Mr Acierno told the Denver Post newspaper. “She tried to keep him calm and keep him there.”