NI bank raiders were almost caught red-handed

Police in Northern Ireland narrowly missed catching the gang responsible for the Northern bank robbery in history red-handed, it emerged tonight.

They were outside the Northern Bank headquarters in central Belfast moments after a white van made off with the last of the robbers’ haul.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed today that they had investigated a report of suspicious activity in Wellington Street beside the bank at around the time the robbery took place.

A man and woman approached a traffic warden in nearby Donegall Place at around 8.10pm to report suspicious activity involving two men and a white van beside the bank.

The traffic warden relayed the information to police shortly after 8.13pm and they reacted immediately, said a PSNI spokeswoman.

“By 8.18pm two uniformed officers were patrolling Wellington Street on foot and CCTV in the area was being checked. There was no van present.”

By that time the van is understood to have been gone for just three minutes and to be speeding along the Westlink which takes traffic out of Belfast either via the M1 or M2 – or into both republican and loyalist west Belfast.

Detectives investigating the robbery appealed for the man and woman who spoke to the traffic warden to contact them as a matter of urgency.

Police only discovered a robbery had taken place at the bank hours later when the hostage wife of a bank official was freed miles away and the alarm raised.

Detectives have identified five groups they believe are capable of carrying out such a robbery – two criminal gangs and three paramilitary groups.