Accused left over £1million in boot of car

A financial advisor accused of laundering over £3 million sterling taken in the Northern Bank raid in Belfast left £1.3 million in the boot of his car in a hotel car park at Dublin Airport for five days while he flew to Bulgaria, a court heard today.

Ted Cunningham told investigating officers how he left the cash in the boot of his Mercedes in the car park of the Great Southern Hotel at Dublin Airport when he flew to Bulgaria on January 22nd 2005 with Phil Flynn, Denis O’Connell, John Douglas and John Surgeon..

Mr Cunningham had earlier told officers how he had collected the money the previous day when he met a man whom he didn’t know at the Ardboyne Hotel in Navan, Co Meath and the man put a number of holdall bags containing the cash in the boot of his car.

He said that he met Phil Flynn’s brother, James at the hotel by chance and he later had a brief meeting with Phil Flynn with whom he had been in contact regarding their trip to Bulgaria the next day but he had not made Mr Flynn aware he had collected a large amount of cash.

Mr Cunningham travelled with the others to Bulgaria to explore establishing a mortgage company there and when he returned to Ireland on January 27th, he collected his car with the cash and dropped Mr Flynn to his home in Castleknock.

Details of how Mr Cunningham collected the cash were revealed in memos of interview that he gave to gardaí after agreeing to meet them in September 2005 to clarify a number of issues that had arisen during their investigation into money laundering.

Det Sgt Gerry McCarthy said that in one interview, Mr Cunningham told them how he had received a phonecall instructing him to go to the Clonmore Hotel in Tullamore on January 17th where he met a man who gave him four holdalls containing £1million.

He told gardai that he didn’t open the bags or count the money but drove back to Cork with it and that he believed at that stage it was a genuine payment from some Bulgarians who had offered to by a sand and gravel pit which he co-owned in Shinrone, Co Offaly.

He then told Gardai that he later received a phonecall from a person whom he didn’t wish to name and that he told him that the money was from the Northern Bank raid, said Det Sgt McCarthy.

Mr Cunningham denies 20 charges of money laundering including one of possessing £3,010,380 stg 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.