Northern Bank robbery

The Northern Bank robbery was a large robbery of cash from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Carried out on 20 December 2004, the gang seized the equivalent of £26.5 million in pounds sterling and small amounts of other currencies, largely euros and US dollars, making it the largest bank robbery in Irish history. Although the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the British and Irish governments claimed the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was responsible (or had permitted others to undertake the raid), this is denied by the Provisional IRA and the political party Sinn Féin. Although one person has been convicted of money laundering, the investigation is still ongoing, and the case remains unsolved.

On the night of Sunday 19 December 2004, groups of armed men arrived at the homes of two 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 (PSNI) 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 Ward's family. Subsequently, McMullan'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 lunch time on Monday, 20 December 2004, Ward 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 one of the robbers. This action was later released as a closed circuit video presentation. After handing over the sports holdall with the stolen money, Ward returned to his work location. This was regarded as a test run for the main robbery later in the evening.

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