ATM ripped out of bank wall

“AUDACIOUS”, WAS how gardaí in Co Kilkenny described a spectacular early morning bank raid in the town of Graiguenamanagh yesterday.

Four masked men stole a JCB mechanical digger and drove it into the front of the Bank of Ireland branch – partly demolishing it. They fled in two stolen cars with a trailer bearing an ATM, believed to have contained “a substantial sum of money ”.

The raid occurred at about 5.30am across the street from a Garda station which, like many in rural areas, operates on a part-time basis, and was closed at the time.

A man who lives just yards away “heard a digger going and knew something was being knocked down”. He leaned out of an upstairs window in his house and managed to film the incident on his mobile phone camera.

Gardaí, who arrived at about 6am, are examining the footage as well as CCTV film from the bank.

An eyewitness who did not wish to be named told The Irish Times he came across “four men wearing black balaclavas” on the street outside the bank. They told him to “f*** off”, and he saw them place the ATM on a green trailer. The one-storey building was badly damaged and engineers were due to inspect it. Supt Gerry Redmond said once the structure was deemed safe to enter, his priority would be to remove remaining cash from safes inside.

Supt Redmond appealed to the public to be on the lookout for the stolen vehicles used by the gang to escape. A blue hatchback Volkswagen Golf, registration number 08 D 29796, had been stolen in Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny, during a burglary on Thursday morning. And an “old style” blue BMW, for which he had a partial registration only of “94 D”, and a “flat green trailer” were stolen in the Graiguenamanagh area yesterday morning.

The JCB was stolen from a building site on the edge of the town. Supt Redmond said the gang could have gone east into Co Carlow, or towards New Ross and south Co Wexford.

The people of Graiguenamanagh are unlikely to have banking facilities for some time. Bank of Ireland is the only bank in the town, and a spokeswoman said customers should avail of services in neighbouring towns.

Perhaps reflecting current antipathy towards financial institutions, local people expressed little sympathy. One young man said he was “delighted” by the “cheeky” raid; an older man said the raiders had “done no worse than the robbers in charge of the banks”. Another said: “I’m not one bit sorry; the f****** have been robbing us for long enough.”

Onlookers agreed that the scale of the damage meant the bank would have to be entirely rebuilt. One man described it as “a terrible eyesore; you wouldn’t see the like of it in communist Europe.”