Bank raiders 'will have to burn £13m'

[emad]

London Evening Standard
By Jayne Atherton, Metro
23 December 2004

The gang behind one of Britain's biggest ever bank heists might be forced to dump more than half its £22million haul, it emerged yesterday.

The raiders drove away from the Northern Bank cash centre in Belfast with at least £13million in new notes, which will be nearly impossible to launder.

Police, who suspect the gang may have had paramilitary connections, are scanning CCTV footage to try to work out where the gang headed with the loot.

But money laundering expert Jeffrey Robinson said: 'If the thieves are smart they will take the US dollars and Euros that are there and burn the rest.'
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/15526184?source=Metro

[Scurrilous]

1. Burn £13m?

That oughta keep them warm for the winter.

[jman0]

2. i love this one: "money laundering expert Jeffrey Robinson"

Why heck, he's the "1990 winner of the Benedictine After-Dinner Speaker of the Year Award" and he's apparently available for hire:
http://www.gordonpoole.com/speakers/JeffreyRobinson.htm

I'm sure the years he's spent writing fiction and drama for the BBC qualifies him as an expert tho...

EDIT: sorry this is not intended as a rip on emad, just commenting on the general idea that the media bandy's this geezer's comments around like he's some expert.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. So you'll ignore the years as an investigative writer

and the praise from "Business Week" for his book about money laundering, and just concentrate on the fact that he also writes fiction, will you?

What would someone have to do to satisfy you as an expert?

[jman0]

5. reply

"What would someone have to do to satisfy you as an expert?"

For one, they should work within the field they are commenting on, for example i would expect an expert in money laundering to have spent time working for the FBI or some sort of counter organized crime division.

Two: I expect more then cutesy sound bites. The media project this guy because he puts a certain spin on the story that they find favorable. On Sky News he was saying the robbers would have been better off with "monopoly money".

But you know what? I suspect the robbers have a fair idea how to launder money and probably felt a certain confidence in their ability. Not that i completely disagree with the theme of the debate: that the robbers will have difficulty with a lot of the money. But this goofey looking geezer is not an expert, he's just some talking-head-for-hire that happened to write a sensationalist book once upon a time.

[fob]

4. I don't know about this guy's bona fides, but that last line in the OP

sure sounds like he's saying the thieves should see him to "clean up" anything other than dollars or euros! Sounds like an advertisement for his "services" to me.

[0007]

7. I wish Mr. Robinson would shed some light on Donald Trump

He indeed looks smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut, LOL!!

[truthisfreedom]

6. i'd like to make a suggestion...

burn all of it. how about that?

[MadHound]

8. Uh, gee, I guess this guy hasn't heard

That it is easy to launder money through various Caribeann island banks, South American drug lords, ME oil barons, African dictators etc. There are lots of ways to launder this money, it is just that they require leaving England. And while it would be tough to fly that loot out, they could either send it via UPS or FedEx, and then pick it up when they get there, or better yet, take a slow boat to where-ever. The high seas are notably lax in their security procedures.

[bin.dare]

9. UPDATE: Home of senior (Irish) Republican searched over NI bank raid

despite claims to the contrary, the PSNI do believe it was an IRA job.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2004/1224/breaking69.htm

The home of senior Belfast Republican Mr Eddie Copeland was searched today by police involved in the hunt to recover the stolen £22 million Northern Bank cash.

They checked every room in his three-storey home and took away shoes and mobile phones and at one stage during the two hours inside opened 30 Christmas presents.

Mr Copeland said: "They had no reason to come here because I have nothing to fear and this to me looks like a politically-motivated operation. I had nothing to do with any robbery."

Earlier it was reported that PSNI officers raided several properties in North and West Belfast in connection with the robbery.

...