The gang which raided the Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast on Monday escaped with £22 million (€31.49 million), the PSNI confirmed yesterday, as it became clear the raiders would have great difficulty laundering the money.
Nearly all of the stolen money is in Northern Ireland banknotes, which are almost unusable in Britain. Police sources said at least £13 million of the money is in new notes, some of which have consecutive serial numbers.
Of that amount, £12 million is in new Northern Bank £10 and £20 notes, and more than £1 million is in new £100 and £50 notes. The PSNI is preparing lists of the relevant serial numbers.
Det Supt Andy Sproule, the senior investigating officer heading a team of 45 detectives, said police "don't often have the luxury of new notes and serial numbers".
Any abnormal transaction involving the local currency would be likely to lead police to the criminals. The gang will also be hampered by stringent EU-wide legislation governing the financial sector, which has placed an onus on bankers, accountants and other professionals to flag suspicious movements of cash.
Senior police officers are not ruling out paramilitary links to the robbery. Mr Sproule said the PSNI was investigating an "active line of inquiry" into previous kidnap robberies in Northern Ireland. He said the hostage-taking and theft was a "carefully planned operation by professional criminals".
Further details of the heist emerged yesterday. Mr Sproule confirmed the chain of events began on Sunday at 10 p.m., some 20 hours before the theft of the £22 million began in Belfast city centre.
Three masked men arrived at the home of a Northern Bank official, Mr Chris Warde, from Poleglass, near Dunmurry, Co Antrim. He was at home with his parents, his brother and his brother's girlfriend when they were held at gunpoint.
He was then taken to the home of a senior bank colleague, Mr Kevin McMullan, in Loughinisland, near Ballynahinch, Co Down, some 20 miles away. The Warde family was held at gunpoint for 24 hours.
Two men posing as PSNI officers had called to the McMullan home, also at about 10 p.m., on the pretext of informing the McMullans that a relative had been involved in a fatal road accident. Once in the house the pair held the family at gunpoint.
Following Mr Warde's arrival the gunmen interviewed the officials separately about the bank's procedures. The kidnappers displayed knowledge of banking systems, Mr Sproule said. At about 11.30 p.m. Mrs McMullan was taken to an unknown location and kept blindfolded for nearly 24 hours.
The gunmen left the McMullan house at 6.30 a.m. on Monday and told the men to go to work at midday at the bank's cash centre at Northern Bank headquarters. This would have been normal practice as the cash centre operates a shift system. The two officials were told their families would be harmed if they did not co-operate.
At 6 p.m. one of the officials took a hold-all containing about £1 million to Upper Queen Street a few yards to the rear of Northern Bank headquarters, where it was collected by another man. Detectives believe this may have been a "dummy run" by the thieves to ensure the police were not about to move in.
The success of this part of the operation was the green light for the robbery to continue.
For the following two hours, the remainder of the stolen cash was loaded into plastic containers and on to trolleys before being collected in a distinctive box-style lorry, not unlike a modified Ford Transit, with a lift at the rear.
The lorry was driven towards the Westlink which connects the North's two motorways. Later on Monday evening, Mrs McMullan was released at a location thought to be Drumkeeragh forest near Dromara, Co Down. Her car was set alight by her captors as they left.
In an interview on the ITV news channel, Jeffrey Robinson, author of The Money Launderer, said the raiders had taken too much in the wrong currency. "They obviously did not count on there being so much money, and Northern Irish notes," he said. "The money is fundamentally useless. I suspect they know that by now."