Kidnap gang ‘that left €300m in a bank vault’
FORMER Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has revealed how tiger kidnappers missed out on stealing €300million in cash they simply left behind.
In his column in today’s Irish Daily Mail, Mr Ahern recalls the raid took place during the boom years, when such abductions were becoming ‘something of an epidemic’.
When he was minister, between 2008 and 2011, there were many tiger kidnappings and ATM robberies, he writes.
One of the biggest involved a major bank branch in Dublin city, and it highlighted the risk of banks holding large amounts of cash.
The family of a bank official were held hostage overnight, while he was given two large bags and ordered to go to work as normal and fill them.
He eventually handed over €7million. But Mr Ahern reveals in today’s column: ‘What I learned afterwards from the gardaí was that the bank official had pretty much unrestricted sole access to the bank vault, which, at the time, contained over €300million in cash!’
‘He could have taken all of it, except he didn’t have enough arms or bags to carry it.’
This prompted the minister to call in the main bank bosses and they set about taking on the crooks. In order to deal with the high rate of tiger kidnappings at the time and deter criminals, protocols were changed to include the use of tracking devices.
Any official at the centre of a tiger kidnapping would then know to use a specific wad of notes, which had a tracking device in it. As crime gangs realised this tactic was being used, the number of ATM robberies and tiger kidnappings reduced significantly.