THE 60-YEAR-OLD financial adviser jailed last month for 10 years for laundering over £3 million stolen in the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast has lodged an appeal against both his conviction and sentence.
Ted Cunningham of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, Co Cork, has lodged appeal papers with the Court of Criminal Appeal in relation to his conviction and sentence last month at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 10 counts of money laundering.
Cunningham’s solicitor John O’Donohue confirmed to The Irish Times yesterday that he had lodged the appeal papers on behalf of Cunningham who was found guilty by a jury on all 10 counts on majority verdicts following a 45-day trial.
Sentencing Cunningham, Judge Con Murphy had observed that it was a very serious offence involving a very large sum of money of over £3 million sterling and a variety of methods of disposal or laundering, including many which involved innocent people.
He noted that Cunningham had persisted throughout his trial with a concocted story that he had obtained the cash from Bulgarians for the sale of a sand and gravel pit in Co Offaly and had claimed that he had been coerced by gardaí into making admissions about the cash.
The judge said there were mitigating factors in Cunningham’s favour including his age and poor health, and the fact that he had no previous convictions and had previously been of blameless good character.
But Judge Murphy said that taking all the circumstances into account, he was sentencing him to 10 years on each of the 10 counts with the sentences to run concurrently and he backdated the sentence to March 27th last when Cunningham was first taken into custody.
Cunningham’s son, Timothy John Cunningham (33) received a three-year suspended sentence on similar charges at the trial.