'Nothing unusual about men leaving money in churchyard,' court hears

The Cork man accused of money-laundering said today there was nothing unusual about two men arriving in a churchyard across the road from his house with £800,000 in Northern sterling and then driving off without getting a receipt.

Ted Cunningham, 60, of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, Co Cork, who denies 20 charges of money-laundering – in a case that arises out of the investigation of the robbery of £26.5m sterling from the Northern Bank in Belfast on December 20, 2004 – said under cross-examination he was used to getting big sums of money from people as part of his work.

He said two men drove from England in a four-wheel drive to deliver the €800,000 to the churchyard 100 yards from his home in October 2004. He said he was in contact with his Bulgarian contact Georgi about the money as part of £4m this man had agreed to pay for a Tullamore sand-and-gravel pit.

Tom O’Connell, prosecution senior counsel, asked why was there such secrecy in meeting at a churchyard rather than calling to the house. Cunningham said it was only 100 yards from his house and there was only parking for one car outside his house. The senior counsel questioned him in detail about the handover of the money.

“Did he introduce himself?” Mr O’Connell asked.

Cunningham replied: “No.”

Mr O’Connell asked: “Did he ask who you were?” Cunningham said: “Yes.”

The senior counsel asked: “What did you say?” The witness replied: “Ted.”

Mr O’Connell asked: “Did anyone ask for a receipt?” The accused replied: “No, but that is not unusual.”

Mr O’Connell responded to this answer: “What? That gentlemen from England would arrive in a four-wheel drive in a churchyard in Cork and give you a bag of Northern sterling, what do you mean it’s not unusual, it is highly unusual.”

Cunningham said: “Maybe for you but in light of the business I was in it was not unusual for me to handle 4 or 500,000 at a time. The sterling I was getting was not from two people I did not know, I was getting if from people we were engaged with.”

Earlier Cunningham described being interviewed by the gardaí and said: “I tried on the first day to tell the truth but it was like shouting up a down-pipe.”

He said after his release from two days in custody in February 2005, Det. Chief Supt. Quilter wanted him to meet with Phil Flynn, former chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and find out his reaction to what had happened.

He met Phil Flynn in the midlands the day after his release and later met Det. Chief Supt. Quilter at Midleton Park Hotel.

Mr Cunningham said: “I just said Phil was concerned for me.”

Asked about Det. Chief Supt. Quilter’s evidence that Cunningham told him he was in fear of Phil Flynn, Cunningham said: “If I was afraid of Phil Flynn why would I have gone to the midlands to meet him?…

He is a director of Chesterton (the finance company of which Cunningham was also a director).