Cunningham facing 14 years

A Cork financial adviser was facing up to 14 years in jail tonight for laundering cash from the £26.5m (€28.4m) Northern Bank robbery.

After a marathon investigation and 10-week trial, Ted Cunningham was found guilty of handling more than £3m (€3.22m) in stolen bank notes in the two months after the audacious December 2004 heist, which has been blamed on the IRA.

The 60-year-old was convicted of orchestrating a dirty money racket stretching from Belfast to the Balkans as republicans plotted to clean up the spoils of the theft.

Defiant until the end, Cunningham, from the village of Farran, Co Cork, protested his innocence as he walked into Cork Circuit Criminal Court on his last day of freedom.

Asked if he had told the truth, he replied: “Of course I have, from day one. And I wasn’t believed from day one.”

He and his son Timothy Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to one charge, are the only people to have been convicted in relation to the notorious heist.

Northern Bank worker Chris Ward from west Belfast, who was wrongly labelled the “inside man” by police, was acquitted last October when the prosecution dramatically dropped its case.

The main charge against the Cunninghams was possession of £3,010,380 (€3,237,873) in Farran between December 20 2004 and February 16 2005, knowing or believing it to be proceeds of the Northern Bank robbery.

His firm Chesterton Finance – part-owned by one of the Government’s former top aides Phil Flynn – was raided as the hot money trail grew wider in the weeks after the notorious theft.

After the hearing Mr Flynn, ex-Sinn Féin vice-president and former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) chairman, said only: “I’m surprised at the conviction.”

Family and friends cried as Cunningham – now prisoner 57178 – was led away for his first night behind bars.

Of the 155,000 banknotes recovered from his home, 15,000 were examined, with more than 400 identified by stamps and handwriting as having passed through the Northern Bank cash centre.

The court heard claims that Mr Flynn, an industrial relations trouble-shooter, was his alleged boss in the money operation but no charges have been brought against him.

A consultant, Catherine Nelson, was named as the person who allegedly tried to calm him when he panicked over the cash and told him the “boys will sort it out”.

The jury found three cars driven by former Sinn Féin councillor Tom Hanlon, Phil Flynn’s sister Catherine Clifford, and Ms Nelson – named in court as Mr Flynn’s associate – which gardaí believed were bought with the proceeds of the bank raid.

Investigators accused Cunningham of getting £4.9m (€5.26m) from an unidentified male, in a northern-registered car, whom he met on four separate occasions.

The jury even watched an interview with Criminal Assets Bureau officers in which he admitted the cash was from the robbery and he had thought about burning it.

But he swapped stories in the trial, maintaining £2.3m (€2.47m) discovered in a locked cupboard in the basement of his home on February 16, 2005 came from the cash sale of a gravel pit in Co. Offaly to Bulgarian businessmen.

The jury remained unaware that on day 15 of the lengthy case Timothy Cunningham, who had faced four money-laundering charges, pleaded guilty to one count and disappeared from proceedings.

Just 10 minutes before returning majority verdicts on all 10 counts, the foreman of the jury told trial judge Cornelius Murphy they could not reach a unanimous decision.

The £26.5m (€28.4m) was stolen in the notorious bank robbery by a gang who kidnapped assistant manager Kevin McMullan and his wife Kyran in their Co Down home, taking her to an undisclosed location while he was forced to steal the money.

Each day the £2.3m *€2.47m) recovered from Cunningham’s home was wheeled into the courthouse under heavy security in steel and aluminium cases.

A total of 77 witnesses, including key investigators, Northern Bank staff, and Cunningham gave evidence during the 10-week trial, which has cost the State up to €1m.

There were emotional scenes as Judge Murphy refused an application to have Cunningham remanded on bail.

The once well-respected businessman held back tears, hugged his tearful partner and family members, made a quick telephone call and thanked his barristers and gardaí in the court.

As he was taken away by prison guards, he turned and waved to his faithful supporters and within two hours was in a van to Cork Prison.

His 33-year-old son remains on bail and both men will be sentenced on April 24, when prosecutors will request the forfeiture of the cash.