£1m theft charge man refused bail

A Securicor driver charged with robbing his own company of £1 last month was in the Belfast Court yesterday.

A Securicor driver charged with robbing his own company of £1 last month was in the Belfast Court yesterday.

Justice Shiel who turned the application had been by a Crown lawyer that the RUC believed Mr Keith Winward (34) from the Taughmonagh estate in south Belfast had been an active participant in the robbery and the planning of it.

He said the stolen money, which had not been recovered, was believed to be destined for the UFF and that Winward knew of its whereabouts. The money should have been taken to the GPO central sorting office in Belfast for transit to England, but instead the van driven by Mr Winward was taken to a derelict farmhouse on April 13th, where it had been intercepted by masked men.

A lawyer appearing for Mr Winward, a former British soldier, said he had acted under extreme duress and had been warned that the lives of his wife and family, who had been taken hostage by men claiming to be from the IRA, lay in his hands.