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02/03/2009
Ahern's Anger Sparks Robbery Action
Hours after the biggest bank robbery to date left a senior Government Minister seething, a review of security at the main financial institutions is to take place.
Dermot Ahern, the Irish Justice Minister, is infuriated that agreed procedures weren't followed by the bank staff.
An armed gang forced a bank official to withdraw €7m from the Bank of Ireland branch in Dublin on Friday.
He said yesterday that 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.
Now, senior police and banking officials have met to discuss why staff at the bank failed to abide by security protocols.
A 24-year-old bank official - Shane Travers - was forced to hand over the cash after his girlfriend, her mother and nephew were taken hostage.
It is understood he was also given photographs of his co-workers and some of their homes to convince bank staff to let him take the money.
But, ignroing protocols to bring the police in for a possible trap for the robbers, they were not informed of the raid until 10 minutes after Mr Travers had left the bank vaults.
Dermot Ahern said protocols agreed between the banking sector and police stated that in the event of a kidnap situation, no money should be taken from any bank facility before police were alerted.
He said because that protocol was not followed, Irish police had no time to put a rapid reaction operation in place.
However, seven people are being questioned in connection with the raid and a substantail amount of cash has been recovered.
In a statement, Gardaí said the meeting discussed security issues at bank premises and cash centres.
"A full and frank discussion took place surrounding procedures and protocols currently in place and a commitment was given by the financial institutions to carry out a complete security review of existing procedures," it said.
"A further meeting to review progress will be arranged in the very near future."
(BMcC/JM)
Dermot Ahern, the Irish Justice Minister, is infuriated that agreed procedures weren't followed by the bank staff.
An armed gang forced a bank official to withdraw €7m from the Bank of Ireland branch in Dublin on Friday.
He said yesterday that 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.
Now, senior police and banking officials have met to discuss why staff at the bank failed to abide by security protocols.
A 24-year-old bank official - Shane Travers - was forced to hand over the cash after his girlfriend, her mother and nephew were taken hostage.
It is understood he was also given photographs of his co-workers and some of their homes to convince bank staff to let him take the money.
But, ignroing protocols to bring the police in for a possible trap for the robbers, they were not informed of the raid until 10 minutes after Mr Travers had left the bank vaults.
Dermot Ahern said protocols agreed between the banking sector and police stated that in the event of a kidnap situation, no money should be taken from any bank facility before police were alerted.
He said because that protocol was not followed, Irish police had no time to put a rapid reaction operation in place.
However, seven people are being questioned in connection with the raid and a substantail amount of cash has been recovered.
In a statement, Gardaí said the meeting discussed security issues at bank premises and cash centres.
"A full and frank discussion took place surrounding procedures and protocols currently in place and a commitment was given by the financial institutions to carry out a complete security review of existing procedures," it said.
"A further meeting to review progress will be arranged in the very near future."
(BMcC/JM)
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