THE FINANCIAL adviser accused of laundering cash stolen in the Northern Bank raid yesterday denied that he had told former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) chairman, Phil Flynn, that he would be able to dispose of £10 million.
Ted Cunningham said that a memo of an interview given to gardaí off camera following his arrest in which he said that he told Mr Flynn that he (Cunningham) could take up to £10 million was not true. Mr Cunningham said he had been coerced into agreeing with details given to him by gardaí.
Mr Cunningham was respond- ing to cross-examination by prosecution counsel, Tom O’Connell SC who questioned him about a series of figures in his handwriting on a sheet of paper found by gardaí.
Mr O’Connell asked Mr Cunningham to explain the figures on the page which included figures such as “Pit 1.2m”, “Rahan 1.5m”, “Clonmore 1.5m”, “Chesterton 3.5m” and “Bulgarians 4.3m” and “10m” and “Fees 1m”.
Mr Cunningham said he could not remember what the figures meant or why he had written them down.
“Four years on . . . I can’t say what was in my head when I wrote this down – I’m always doodling with figures . . . I can’t say what they are actually related to – all my life I have just scribbled things down from time to time – I might just have been playing with figures.”
Mr O’Connell put it to Mr Cunningham that the figures tallied with the figures given in the memo of interview taken by gardaí on February 18th, 2005 which mentioned that he told Mr Flynn that he could taken £10 million but Mr Cunningham denied the memo was correct.
And he denied he had contradicted his statement to gardaí on February 17th, 2005 that former Sinn Féin councillor Tom Hanlon was not aware of £2.3 million in his home at Farran when he said in his direct evidence that Mr Hanlon had helped count the cash at the house.
Mr O’Connell asked Mr Cunningham to explain why he was now claiming that money he had given to the jewellers John and Jack Douglas in Tullamore had come from Bulgarians for the sale of the sand and gravel pit when he told them at the time it came from the sale of property in Dundalk.
Mr Cunningham said John Douglas had asked him what he was to tell his parents about the money when he asked him to mind it and he simply said to tell them that it came from the sale of property in Dundalk, even though there was no such sale.
The case continues before a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.