Police chief grilled over Northern Bank raid

Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde will be asked later today whether a failure of intelligence led to the £26.5m (€38.1m) Northern Bank heist.

Mr Orde, who will appear before the Policing Board, is expected to face a barrage of tough questions about last month’s robbery, one of the biggest in history.

Policing Board member Sammy Wilson said board members had a number of key concerns.

“We have a number of questions to ask him about how the police handled the investigation.

“But we will be going back beyond the robbery and asking about the apparent intelligence failure.

“We want to know why the police weren’t able to pick up any indication that this was going to happen.

“They didn’t appear to have any information that a major crime was planned involving a lot of terrorists,” he added.

Board members are also concerned about confirmation that a report of suspicious activity outside the bank was received on the night of the robbery.

A call was made to police that two men were acting suspiciously after a white van was spotted parked in a nearby side street.

A foot patrol was sent to check out the reported suspicious activity.

Mr Wilson said: “One of the things that will be asked is how did the police react to these calls? Did they simply look around and see nothing or did they make contact with the bank?

“All the time we are told that it is the initial hours of a crime that are the most crucial part of any investigation.”

Earlier this month, Mr Orde after meeting with Policing Board chairman Sir Des Rea and deputy chairman Denis Bradley, said the IRA was behind the robbery.

He added that the raid was not a victimless crime, but was “violent and brutal…not some Robin Hood effort”.

Meanwhile, detectives investigating the robbery revealed yesterday that 1,000 lines of inquiry were being examined, some with the aid of international experts.

New CCTV footage from inside the Northern‘s Belfast cash distribution centre showed a bank supervisor, whose family was held hostage, leaving with a sports bag filled with nearly £1.5m (€2.2m) in notes for a rendezvouos with one of the raiders.