One of the hostages taken by the gang responsible for the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast has spoken of his ordeal.
Mr Chris Ward (23), who worked as a supervisor in the cash centre, described in an interview published in the Irish Newstoday how his ordeal began when two men tricked their way into his home the night before the robbery.
A gang of at least 20 was involved, police believe. But even though Chief Constable Hugh Orde has blamed the IRA, there have been no arrests. With none of the money yet to turn up, Sinn Féin has denied the Provisionals were responsible.
The bank confirmed today that up to 40 members of staff based at their city centre HQ are to be relocated to branches in other parts of Northern Ireland. They asked to be moved amid fears that the gang involved may have their personal details.
Agencies
"They said 'Look Chris, we know everything about you and your family,'" he told the paper.
"'We are going to take you away for 24 hours and if you co-operate everything will be okay. If you don't, you and your family are dead.'"
The next day Mr Ward carried a sports bag stuffed with 50 and 100 pound notes out of the bank as a "dummy run" to check the police had not been alerted before the main robbery.
Later, after the rest of the staff had been sent home, he and assistant manager Mr Kevin McMullan - whose family were also being held hostage - carried boxes of cash out to a van waiting in a loading bay behind the bank.
They had been ordered by the gang to tell security staff they were taking rubbish to be collected by a service company. No one has been arrested or charged over the December 20 robbery, and none of the cash has been recovered.
Northern Bank plans to withdraw all its paper currency in an bid to thwart efforts to launder the cash, but police say £10 million of the haul is untraceable because it is in used notes or notes for which the bank did not keep serial numbers.