No money-laundering charges two years after bank raid

By Caroline O’Doherty

No decisions on charges against suspects investigated for money-laundering as part of the probe into the Northern Bank raid are expected for another year.

As the second anniversary of the £26.5 million (€39m) Belfast robbery approaches this Wednesday, it has emerged the garda file on the investigation only went to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in recent weeks.

One of the biggest files compiled by gardaí, it runs to over 10 volumes and many thousands of pages of witness statements, surveillance reports and forensic data.

It focuses on five individuals whom detectives believe were involved in attempts to launder the stolen money through businesses in the south and various investment channels.

Some media reports earlier this year incorrectly stated that the file was already with the DPP, whose task it is to decide which suspects, if any, should be charged and with what offences.

Superintendent Kevin Donohue of the Garda Press Office, however, said work on the file had only recently been completed by gardaí and that there was still information being sought from their counterparts in the North.

“I can confirm that a substantial file has been submitted to the DPP a number of weeks ago and that within that file the gardaí have made recommendations in respect of a number of people, and that a number of inquiries remain outstanding with the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) and are being dealt with within the mutual assistance agreements,” Supt Donohue said.

Any additional information received from the PSNI will be added to the files already with the DPP who is not expected to be in a position to conclude his deliberations until well into the latter half of next year.

An IRA gang of up to 30 members is believed to have been responsible for the raid on December 20, 2004, but despite garda and PSNI investigations, just three people have been charged in the North in connection with the robbery and they have not yet been sent forward for trial.

In the Republic, one man is awaiting trial but only on a charge of membership of the IRA. No one has been charged with what gardaí believe was a highly sophisticated attempt to launder the stolen money.

Less than £3m (€4m) of the money is believed to have been recovered.

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