New CCTV footage of Northern Bank robbery van found

Detectives have discovered new footage of the van used in the £26.5m (€37.8m) Northern Bank robbery, it emerged tonight.

Officers trawling through thousands of hours of CCTV images spotted the white box-type vehicle near a retail centre at Lisburn, County Antrim, on the night thieves looted the vaults.

The sighting at the Sprucefield complex just off the M1 motorway could yield a breakthrough for police attempting to establish where the gang went following the raid on the Northern’s cash distribution centre in Belfast.

Officers are investigating the possibility that the van was stolen in Wales weeks before the December 20 heist which has been blamed on the IRA.

Police have already said that the van crossed over the border into the North hours before the robbery took place.

But now they know that after the gang used two members of staff to load up with cash while their families were held hostage, the thieves headed back on to the motorway which is one of the main routes into the Republic of Ireland.

A PSNI spokeswoman confirmed the sighting was at just before 8.50pm.

Up to 45 detectives and more than a dozen extra support staff have been drafted into the huge investigation into one of the world’s biggest cash bank robberies.

Even though the IRA and Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have rejected Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s assessment that the Provisionals were behind the operation, the allegation has shattered any attempts to restore Northern Ireland’s power-sharing administration.