THE FINANCIAL adviser who is accused of laundering money from the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast has insisted there was nothing unusual about accepting £800,000 from two men in a car park without either counting the money or being asked for a receipt.
Ted Cunningham said he frequently had received large sums of cash from customers. He did not think there was anything unusual about meeting two Englishmen in Farran church car park near his home to receive £800,000 in cash from some Bulgarian businessmen.
Cross-examined by Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, Mr Cunningham said the money was the first in a series of payments by Georgi Andassarov, Slavtcho Andassarov and Emil Petrov for the purchase of a sand and gravel pit in Co Offaly. The Bulgarians were to pay £2 million for the pit on the contract with a further £2 million being paid to cover matters such as revenue and legal fees.
Mr Cunningham denies laundering over £3 million stolen in the Northern Bank raid in Belfast in December 2004.
Questioned by Mr O’Connell about how the payments were made, Mr Cunningham said he received a phone call from Georgi Andassarov in late October and they arranged that he would collect the money at the car park of Farran church near his home.
“I was in telephone contact with Georgi. I got a call as to what time it was likely to be there at and I gave him directions on where to go. At around 6.30pm, the money was delivered to me. There were two English gentlemen in a Jeep.”
Mr Cunningham said that the driver of the 4x4, whom he said had “a broad English accent”, got out of the vehicle and spoke to him. “He said ‘Are you Ted?’ I said ‘yeah’ and he said ‘you know why I’m here’,” and he handed over the money in four holdall bags. Asked by Mr O’Connell if he looked into the bags or counted the money, Mr Cunningham said that he did not at that stage. When Mr O’Connell asked him if anyone asked him for a receipt, he replied “No, but that’s not unusual.”
Asked how he brought the money to his house, Mr Cunningham said the Englishmen left and he brought two of the holdall bags to the house first, then returned to the car park to pick up the other bags, which he had left unattended.
He put the bags in the built-in press where gardaí later found cash when they searched the premises on February 17th, 2005. He did not go near the bags again until early in December when Georgi Andassarov flew to Ireland and gave him more money.
Mr Cunningham said he met Mr Andassarov for a meal at the Blarney Park Hotel where Mr Andassarov handed over another holdall with £200,000 as payment for the pit, which he also put in the press in the basement of his house in Farran.
Asked by Mr O’Connell whether he asked where the Bulgarians had got Northern Bank, Bank of England and Bank of Scotland sterling, Mr Cunningham said it was his understanding that they were trading in commodities and property in the UK and Europe.
The trial continues.