GARDAI investigating Saturday's robbery at a cash depot in Waterford are looking for a Dublin registered ear which they believe may be connected with the raid.
The white Ford Sierra Ghia, with 92D in its registration, was seen following a Securicor van shortly before it entered the company's depot at Ballynaneasagh, about two miles outside the city.
About £100,000 is believed to have been stolen when three armed men confronted staff in the building at 6 p.m., while the van was being unloaded.
Yesterday, the senior Garda in Waterford, Chief Supt Sean O'Halloran, rejected suggestions that cutbacks in Garda overtime had left the van without an escort.
"That's totally and utterly incorrect, the question of overtime didn't come into it," he said. But it was not possible to provide an escort for each of the many movements of cash throughout the city.
The van had been collecting cash from businesses on Saturday evening. While it had no escort, its progress was monitored" by gardai, senior officers said.
The white Sierra was seen bed hind the van in Manor Street, as it returned to the depot just before 6 p.m. At the time, no significance was attached to the car.
By the time the van reached the depot, at least one of the armed raiders was already inside. The gang had breached an outer fence at the rear of the premises - either by unbolting a section of the fence or breaking the lock on a gate.
On reaching the building - which had no Securicor staff inside before the van arrived - the raiders built a rough ladder from planks and pieces of plywood. This allowed them to reach a seam between two sections of galvanised metal sheeting, one of which was prised away.
The two Securicor staff entered the premises, locked the front gate behind them, drove their van into the building and began to unload the cash. At this stage they were confronted by a man armed with what appeared to be a machinegun.
He forced one staff member to lie on the ground and the other to stay face down in the van.
According to Chief Supt O'Halloran, the raid took "about a minute, or a minute and a half." The raiders escaped through the hole they had made in the rear wall, and a Securicor employee raised the alarm at 6:03 p.m.
Chief Supt O'Halloran rejected the suggestion that telephone or alarm cables at the premises had been cut. Securicor would not comment, but it rejected a suggestion that security at the depot was "less than adequate."
However, The Irish Times was able to examine the raiders' handiwork in the deserted yard and on the rear wall of the building yesterday morning without being challenged.
The depot shares a yard with a carpentry shop, and the two are surrounded by a metal fence about 10 feet high. A gate in the fence was open yesterday, allowing access to the yard and an inner fence, from which a section had been removed.
Beside the point of entry was the raiders' ladder, made from long planks nailed to sheets of plywood. Other pieces of plywood were scattered about the yard. There were also many other pieces of timber and wooden pallets lying around.
The building shows no signs of security measures, such as lights or cameras. In contrast, the AIB cash holding facility half a mile away is festooned with both.
After a lengthy examination of the premises The Irish Times left, apparently with the Securicor staff inside none the wiser. By the afternoon, however, gardai were on guard at the rear fence.