True Crime Collection

The Northern Bank Robbery

On the night of 19th December 2004, groups of armed men arrived at the homes of 2 officials of the Northern Bank, one in Downpatrick in County Down, the other in Poleglass, in West Belfast. Masquerading as Police Service of Northern Ireland officers, they entered the homes and held the officials and their families at gunpoint. Bank official Christopher Ward was taken from Poleglass to Downpatrick, the home of his supervisor, Kevin McMullan, while gunmen remained at his home with Christopher's family. Subsequently, Kevin's wife was taken from their home and held, also at gunpoint, at an unknown location. The following day both officials were instructed to report for work at the bank's headquarters at Belfast's Donegall Square West as normal. 

At lunchtime on 20th December 2004, Christopher removed a sum of money thought to be around £1 million and placed it in a sports holdall. He walked out of the bank's Wellington Street staff entrance with the holdall and made his way to a bus stop in Queen Street where he met up with 1 of the robbers. This action was later released as a closed circuit video presentation. After handing over the sports holdall with the stolen money, Christopher returned to his work location. This was regarded as a test run for the main heist later in the evening. 

Kevin and Christopher remained at work after the close of business, and later in the evening they gave entry to other members of the gang. The robbers entered the bank via the Wellington Street staff entrance and made their way to the bank's cash handling and storage facility. This held an usually large amount of cash in preparation of distribution to automated teller machines for the busy Christmas shopping season. Cash was transferred to 1 or several vehicles parked outside in Wellington Street. The gang then fled. Shortly before midnight the gang holding the Ward family left, and those holding Mrs McMullan released her in a forest near Ballynahinch. The haul included £10 million of uncirculated Northern Bank sterling banknotes, £5.5 million of used Northern Bank sterling notes, £4.5 million of circulated sterling notes issued by other banks, and small amounts of other currencies, largely euros and US dollars. 

Following the raid, Northern Bank announced that it would recall all £300 million worth of its banknotes in denominations of £10 or more, and reissue them in different colours with a new logo and new serial numbers. The first of these new notes entered circulation on 11th March 2005. 

Although the police initially refused to be drawn as to who might be involved, a number of commentators, including journalist Kevin Myers writing in the Daily Telegraph, quickly blamed the Provisional IRA, saying that only it had the wherewithal to conduct such a professional operation in the province. 1 senior police officer quoted in The Guardian newspaper said: "This operation required great expertise and coordination, probably more than the loyalist gangs possess".

Investigations were conducted by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. On 7th January 2005 Hugh Orde, the service's Chief Constable, issued an interim report in which he blamed the Provisional IRA for the robbery. The British and Irish governments concurred with Hugh's assessment, as did the Independent Monitoring Commission. Sinn Féin, however, denied the Chief Constable's claim, saying the IRA had not conducted the raid and that Sinn Féin officials had not known of or sanctioned the robbery. Martin McGuinness said that Hugh's accusation represented "nothing more than politically-biased allegations. This is more to do with halting the process of change with Sinn Féin has been driving forward than with anything that happened at the Northern Bank". Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, on the other hand, said that "an operation with this magnitude had obviously been planned at a stage when I was in negotiations with those that would know the leadership of the Provisional movement."

On 18th January 2005 the Provisional IRA issued a 2 line statement denying any involvement in the robbery: "The IRA has been accused of involvement in the recent Northern Bank robbery. We were not involved".