A FINANCIAL adviser and his son charged with laundering over £3 million (€3.25 million) admitted to gardaí during questioning that they knew the cash was part of the proceeds of the Northern Bank robbery, the prosecution claimed yesterday as the men went on trial.
Ted Cunningham (60), of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, Co Cork denies 20 charges of money laundering, while his son, Timothy Cunningham (33), of Church View, Farran, denies four charges of money laundering, all between December 20th, 2004 and February 16th, 2005. Among the charges they both face is one of possessing £3,010,380 at Farran between December 20th, 2004 and February 16th, 2005, knowing or believing it to be the proceeds of robbery at the Northern Bank Cash Centre, Belfast.
Prosecution counsel Tom O’Connell SC opened the State’s case before the jury of seven men and five women and Judge Con Murphy at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, and gave a broad outline of the evidence that the State intends to call over the next number of weeks.
Mr O’Connell said the State would call evidence regarding the raid on the Northern Bank Cash Centre on December 20th, 2004, when an armed gang held bank employee Kevin McMullen and his wife Kyra captive and made off with £26.5 million. The Northern Bank Cash Centre was a sorting centre for the bank for all sterling notes circulated in Northern Ireland, and the court would hear evidence that some £17.65 million of the stolen cash was in new, easily traceable notes, and £8.85 million was in used notes.
Ted Cunningham was a director of an unregulated money lending firm called Chesterton Finance along with an Irene Johnson and then Bank of Scotland (Ireland) chairman Phil Flynn, who had a 10pc share, and Ted Cunningham was ideally positioned to launder money, said Mr O’Connell.
The State, Mr O’Connell added, will call evidence that some £4,924,900 of this money passed through Ted Cunningham’s hands, and that gardaí recovered some £2,405,060 of this when they searched Mr Cunningham’s house under warrant on February 16th, 2005.
The State also alleges that some £1.5 million of the £4,924,900 was “disposed of in a moment of panic” while a further £1,019,840 was dispersed by Ted Cunningham, and that gardaí recovered some £605,320 of this.
Ted Cunningham was not at home when gardaí raided his house on February 16th, 2005, but he returned home when they phoned him and gave permission for them to break open a cupboard in the basement, where detectives found six hold-all bags and a plastic bag containing sterling.
Ted Cunningham was arrested on suspicion of being a member of an illegal organisation. While he initially claimed the cash was from the sale of a gravel pit in Shinrone, Co Offaly, to two unnamed Bulgarians, he later changed his story, Mr O’Connell alleged.
Mr O’Connell said the State would present evidence Ted Cunningham received a total of £4,924,900 in four separate transactions. The State would say that on January 18th, 2005, Ted Cunningham travelled to the Clonmore Hotel in Tullamore, Co Offaly, where he met an unidentified man driving a Northern Ireland registered car who gave him four bags containing £1.25 million.
The case continues today.