02/03/2009

'Tiger' Robbery Cash Recovered

A substantial amount of the €7 million taken by a gang from a Dublin bank, after they coerced a bank official by kidnapping members of his family, has been recovered.

Gardaí found €4m, believed to have come from the country's biggest bank robbery at the weekend.

On Friday, an armed gang forced a bank official to take the money from the Bank of Ireland branch at College Green, Dublin.

They had taken his partner, her mother and a five-year-old boy hostage.

However, arrests were later made with six men and a woman held for questioning in connection with the robbery.

Detectives have identified a notorious organised crime gang from Dublin's north inner city as the prime suspects.

In a dramatic string of swoops across the Irish capital, one house was raided, two cars were stopped and searched, and cash seized.

The gang had forced their way into the home of Bank of Ireland employee Shane Travers in County Kildare on Thursday night.

His partner, Stephanie Smith, was beaten and the family bundled into a van and driven from the house.

The 24-year-old junior key holder was forced to drive into work early on Friday.

After filling laundry bags with brand new notes from the company's landmark central Dublin branch, he handed the money over to the gang at Clontarf Dart station.

His partner's family was then released in the Ashbourne area of Co Meath at around 7am on Friday.

It has since been reported that Dermot Ahern, the Irish Justice Minister is infuriated that agreed procedures weren't followed by the bank staff.

The police weren't notified about the attack until after the cash had been handed over, with at least one other member of bank staff also failing to use established methods of involving police officers in the robbery alert.

"It is a fact that gardai didn't know about this incident until the money had actually left the bank premises.

"Under normal protocol that shouldn't be the case, because the sooner they know about it, the sooner they can put in the necessary checkpoints," said Mr Ahern.

See: Tiger' Raid Gang Sought

(BMcC/JM)

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