Brinks Allied to end ATM deliveries for Bank of Ireland

Security company Brinks Allied is set to stop delivering cash to 85 Bank of Ireland ATMs in the latest twist in a row over liabilities for the recent rash of armed robberies.

The bank announced yesterday that Brinks Allied would no longer deliver money to "off-site" ATMs, those not connected to a bank branch, from next August after deciding to end its contract with the bank to service the cash points.

The split is the latest development in a dispute that blew up between the pair at the end of last April.

The security company stopped delivering cash to 85 of the bank's off-site ATMs in Cork, Dublin and Waterford.

Brinks said that it had to deal with an increasing number of armed robberies, and wanted the bank to share liability for the losses it was suffering.

Last April armed robbers took €2.2 million from a Brinks Allied van at a petrol station in Artane, Dublin, when the crew made an unscheduled stop to buy coffee. The raid occurred within a mile of Brinks Allied's depot in Clonshaugh.

The robbery prompted a debate about standards in the security industry.

It occurred within a fortnight of armed robbers making off with a similar amount of cash from a Securicor van.

Bank of Ireland began a court action in an effort to compel Brinks Allied to resume the service on the grounds that it had a binding contract with the security company.

However, before the case reached the High Court on April 29th, the security company resumed deliveries to the ATMs, but carried smaller amounts of cash.

At the hearing, the court agreed that Brinks could reduce the amounts of cash it was carrying once it continued to provide the service.

This has caused affected ATMs to run out of cash more often than usual. The bank said that 49 of the cash points were out of action yesterday.

In May, Brinks Allied wrote to Bank of Ireland giving it three months' notice of its intention to end the contract.

"With effect from August 20th, 2005, Bank of Ireland will not be using Brinks to deliver cash to the 85 affected ATMs," the bank said.

Chubb Ireland will provide the bank with an interim service with immediate affect. It intends to tender for a replacement for Brinks Allied, a process that will take several weeks.

The ATMs in question amount to just under half the bank's offsite network, and less than 10 per cent of all cash points.

Brinks Allied also has a separate contract to deliver cash to individual Bank of Ireland branches. This will not be affected.