€7m bank robbery - Lax security a threat to all of society

THE tattered reputation of Irish banks — or indeed Ireland — will not be improved by yesterday’s €7 million raid on the Bank of Ireland at College Green in Dublin.

The thieves, believed to be a violent gang of professional criminals from Dublin’s northside, had to do no more than identify just one vulnerable bank employee. Then threaten that individual’s partner and her family, thereby forcing that unfortunate employee to bring them an estimated €7m.

Is it really possible, in 2009, that such an amount of money is so easily targeted and stolen?

Is it really possible, that despite the £26.5 million (€30m) Northern Bank raid just over four years ago, an organisation with the experience, resources and responsibilities of the Bank of Ireland had such paper-thin, such feeble, security protocols in place? Or were they just ignored? Can it really be that the Bank of Ireland, despite all its tremendous difficulties, could find only one person to stand between professional criminals — in this instance at least six — and millions of euro in a bank vault in the very centre of our capital?

Did the bank not have 24-hour security staff in place who might have been surprised to see a bank employee arriving at his place of work at such an improbable hour? How could an individual load €7m into a sports car outside a bank building without someone noticing?

While concern and sympathy must be offered to the family attacked, no institution should leave an individual so exposed. All in all it seems a tremendous failure of security and Justice Minister Dermot Ahern is absolutely right to be furious. No doubt his anger will be deepened if it is confirmed that some of the gang are already before the courts on other charges.

It has been suggested that some of them were doing no more than putting a retirement fund in place to be enjoyed after they had served anticipated prison sentences on the charges mentioned earlier. Their audacity was matched only by the bank’s poor security.

This should concern and anger us all as now we have an emboldened and enriched gang with the resources to be more efficient and more dangerous. This security lapse will jeopardise the gardaí and security company employees we — and the banks — expect to protect cash in transit and cash stored in various banks. It will endanger the very people we hope will stand between us all and these gangs.

By ignoring business ethics our banks have exacerbated the impact the great international economic collapse has had on our economy. Like it or not their actions contributed to yesterday’s startling unemployment figures, up a frightening 70% in a year.

By having, as it seems at this juncture, boy-scout security arrangements in place, they are making life far too easy for criminals. Maybe this is the kind of laxity we can expect when a bank CEO’s “published compensation” for a year falls below the €2,000,000 threshold.

Another bad day for the Bank of Ireland but a bad day for this society too.