Gardaí 'laughed' at account of Bulgarians and Offaly sandpit

TED CUNNINGHAM has told his trial how gardaí laughed at him when he told them during interview that £2.3 million found at his house in Co Cork was cash he received from three Bulgarians who were buying a sand and gravel pit from him in Co Offaly.

“I know it was said to me that they didn’t believe my story about the Bulgarians – from memory it was Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald who said it and that it was a cock-and-hoop story and it was suggested that I should go and think about my situation overnight,” he said.

The following morning, when he told Det Garda Fitzgerald and Det Sgt Gerry McCarthy that what he had told them before was the truth, they just laughed at him.

“I was being honest and open as to what our dealings were and, as has been pointed out here in court, the Bulgarians weren’t a figment of my imagination,” he said. “We were doing business together and I was giving an account the best way I could.”

Mr Cunningham said details of deliveries of cash noted in a memo by gardaí during an off-camera interview were as a result of gardaí having checked his mobile phone records on certain days and suggesting to him that he confirm he got the cash at those locations.

Asked by his counsel, Ciarán Ó Loughlin SC, about the Bulgarian payments, Mr Cunningham said he got the money from the Bulgarians in a number of payments including one of £800,000 sterling, one of £200,000 and several of £500,000.

He received the first delivery in Farran in October 2004 and he got the second payment at the Blarney Park Hotel in December 2004. He got the third payment in Tullamore, the fourth in Navan and two further payments after that again in Tullamore.

He received the Navan payment from an Englishman whose name he did not know but he was a representative of Bulgarian businessman Georgi Andossorov, who was living in Britain at the time and was one of three Bulgarians who had agreed to buy the Shinrone pit.

Mr Cunningham said that he had often kept substantial sums of money in the press over the years including up to £1.2 million Irish at the time of the changeover from pounds to euro while at other times, he would have kept sums of £200,000 and £300,000 there.

“On this occasion, there was £2.3 million sterling. It came from the Bulgarians, all of the money that I got from the Bulgarians would have been stored there.”

He did not know who first made a comment about the money coming from the Northern Bank.

“I’m not sure who said about the Northern Bank first . . . but I definitely said it wasn’t from the Northern Bank. I knew it wasn’t because I had got £800,000 sterling in October and £200,000 sterling in December and some euros as well before Christmas.”