New probe into Cunningham finances

The 60-year-old, from Farran in Co Cork, was also found guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court of another nine counts linked to the stolen cash which moved from Belfast to Cork.

His son, Timothy Cunningham Junior, was given a three-year suspended sentence after he admitted knowing money came from the December 2004 robbery at the Northern Bank cash centre in Belfast.

Judge Cornelius Murphy said the 33-year-old was merely a pawn in the operation and it had taken great courage to plead guilty in defiance of his father.

“He was under the influence and direction of his father at the time,” said Judge Murphy.

“He was at no time the originator of the crime.”

The recently-married epilepsy sufferer left the courtroom with his tearful wife before the judge dealt with his father.

Cunningham was accused of involving a number of innocent people in the scam to launder the dirty cash.

“He stored money, he gave money to others to store, bought cars, used money as security, and obtained euro value for the northern sterling,” said the judge.

“There’s no doubt there was premeditation and planning involved in the offences.

“He persisted to the end with a concocted alibi that Bulgarians were going to buy a pit.”

Pleading leniency, defence counsel Ciaran O’Loughlin SC told the judge his client had been used by the IRA and was far removed from the original offence in Belfast.

He said the disgraced financial adviser had serious health problems and suffered from a blood and tissue disorder which led to him having nosebleeds and high blood pressure.

“As a result of this he has anaemia and requires hospitalisation and blood transfusions,” added Mr O’Loughlin.

The judge ordered the new multi-agency inquiry into whether Cunningham personally benefited financially from the money laundering deal after a request from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

It is expected the fraud squad and Criminal Assets Bureau, which is in the process of securing an €880,000 tax settlement with Cunningham, will be asked to join the probe.

A pale-faced Cunningham waved to family members in the public gallery before he was led away by guards back to Cork Prison.

Sources said he has settled in well to life in jail, quickly making friends with inmates, making hurleys in the workshop, while also keeping up his love of singing by joining the prison choir.

Superintendent Sean Healy told the court that, after the £26.5m ((€29.3m) Northern Bank robbery, gardaí in Cork began to probe links with people in the IRA.

Forty-four search warrants were executed for premises across the county, with specialist officers drafted in to assist, he revealed.

Cunningham was arrested in February 2005 when detectives running Operation Phoenix, which is still active, raided his home and discovered £2.4 million packed in six holdall bags locked in a cupboard in his basement.

“This was an extremely lengthy investigation over a long period, a cross-border investigation with the PSNI,” said Mr Healy.

The mammoth cross-border police investigation lasting more than three years involved anti-terrorist units, fraud squads and the Criminal Assets Bureau and eventually led to a long list of charges.

The main charge is that both men had in their possession £3,010,380 (€3,333,589) at Farran between December 20, 2004 and February 16, 2005, knowing or believing it to be the proceeds of a robbery at the Northern Bank cash centre in Belfast.

Cunningham also laundered cash and cheques by disposing of them through friends, family and business associates.

Despite the conviction after a 10-week trial, he maintains that the money discovered in the locked cupboard in the basement of his home on February 16, 2005 came from the cash sale of a gravel pit in Co. Offaly to Bulgarian businessmen.

The judge refused the State’s application for Cunningham to pay costs but ordered the forfeiture of the cash recovered in the investigation.