Jury sworn in for trial of father and son accused of Northern Bank money-laundering
A jury was sworn in today for the trial of a Cork financial advisor and his son who are accused of laundering more than £3m (€3.33m) – arising out of the investigation of the 2004 Northern Bank robbery.
Timothy Cunningham, aged 60, of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, Co Cork, was arraigned at Cork Circuit Criminal Court today on a total of 20 charges of money laundering arising out of an extensive garda investigation following the robbery of £26.5m (€29.4m) from the Northern Bank in Belfast on December 20, 2004.
His son, Timothy John Cunningham, aged 33, Church View, Farran, County Cork, denied two similar charges.
Judge Cornelius Murphy asked the jury of eight men and four women to return to the court on Tuesday, January 20, for the commencement of the trial which could take up to 12 weeks.
Prosecution senior counsel, Tom O’Connell, said, “My own view is that it could take half that time.”
While Mr O’Connell SC will not open the case until 10.30am on Tuesday, he did tell the jury panel before the jury was selected: “It is a notorious fact that on December 20, 2004, £26.5m (€29.4m) was robbed from the Northern Bank situated at Donegall Square West in the city of Belfast. The accused in this case are accused of laundering part of that money so stolen in the bank robbery.”
He told the 100 or so members of the jury panel that they should not serve on the jury if they knew either of the accused or had any dealings with Timothy Cunningham’s money-lending company, Chesterton Finance.
He also told the jury that they should not serve if they knew any of the key witnesses in the case including Dan Joe Guerin who operates a car dealership in Ballincollig, County Cork, and John Sheehan, a property developer in Cork city.
Originally, Cunningham Snr faced 10 charges and his son faced two. They were arraigned yesterday on twice as many counts yesterday.
The second set of charges are identical to the first with the exception of referring to the money from the Northern Bank as having been a ‘robbery’ in the first set of charges and a ‘theft’ in the second alternative set of charges.
The principle charge against each man is of possessing over £3m (€3.33m) between December 20, 2004 and February 16, 2005 at Farran knowing or believing it represented the proceeds of the robbery at the Northern Bank Cash Centre, Donegall Square West, Belfast.
The second charge against Cunningham jnr. is that he had transferred €200,000 (€222,000) cash to a named individual on January 21, 2005.
The other nine charges faced by Cunningham snr. charge him with transferring various sums of cash and cheques to others and transferring a number of cars with the intention of concealing or disguising its source and that these alleged offences were committed in Tullamore, County Offaly, and in County Cork. Every charge in the case – whether it refers to cash, cheques or cars - is one of money-laundering.
