£20 had bank stamp, trial told

THE TRIAL of a financial adviser charged with laundering over £3 million (€3.35 million) yesterday heard evidence that a £20 Bank of England note recovered in Co Cork had previously passed through a bank in Co Antrim.

Charmain Beggs, manager of the Northern Bank’s Abbey Centre branch in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that a £20 Bank of England note was marked with the branch stamp before it was sent to the Northern Bank Cash Centre.

Ms Beggs told the trial of Ted Cunningham that all non-Northern Bank sterling notes were remitted to that centre, as Northern Bank branches retained only their own issue sterling for over-counter payment to customers. These remitted notes were put in bundles and inserted inside bands which were stamped with branch details so they could be traced, but sometimes the stamp transferred from the band on to the top note in the bundle.

She said she could see part of the Abbey Centre stamp on the £20 note along with the date “16 December”. She could not say what year it had passed through as the year was not visible.

Ms Beggs said the branch made two remittances a week to the cash centre, and on the week before the robbery on December 20th, 2004, the branch had made remittances on December 14th and December 17th when £197,000 was sent.

Cross-examined by James O’Mahony SC, for the accused, on whether the stamp might date from December 16th, 2003, Ms Beggs said a remitted note would not remain that long at the centre.

The court later heard evidence from Det Garda Seamus Padden of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation that the £20 note in question was from a consignment of £175,000 handed over to gardaí by Cork developer John Sheehan of Balllincollig

Mr Sheehan earlier told the court Ted Cunningham gave him two bags full of sterling in February 2005 as security against a €200,000 loan which Mr Cunningham sought from him. He had put the money in his office safe.Mr Cunningham denies 20 charges of money laundering including one of possessing £3,010,380 at Farran between December 20th, 2004 and February 16th, 2005, knowing or believing it to be the proceeds of robbery at the Northern Bank cash centre in Belfast.The case continues.