Bank clerk 'was the inside man for £26.5m heist and changed staff rota to put himself in charge of vault key'

A young bank clerk was a member of an armed gang that stole £26.5million from the vaults where he worked, a court heard on Tuesday.

The 2004 robbery, at the time the biggest in British history, almost derailed the Northern Ireland peace deal after police and politicians declared it the work of the IRA.

On Tuesday  the first man to be tried in a British court over the heist, Christopher Ward, 26, appeared before a judge accused of stealing the money and imprisoning his boss Kevin McMullan and Mr McMullan's wife Kyran.

Ward, who is free on bail, denies all charges.

He claims he was seized by a gang who held his family hostage, then forced him and Mr McMullan to go to work and pack a fortune into a van.

But Belfast Crown Court was told that the bank clerk was unnaturally calm throughout his alleged ordeal  -  even asking the gang for a cold beer, and coolly popping off to pick up a Christmas present.

In fact, it is claimed, Ward was the gang's inside man, and had changed work rotas to make the heist possible.

When his boss suggested they raise the alarm during the raid, he is said to have argued vociferously against it.

Prosecutor Gordon Kerr, QC, outlined the case against the clerk to Mr Justice McLaughlin, who is sitting in the absence of a jury, under a law designed for cases where jurors could be subject to intimidation.

Mr Kerr explained how the robbery took place at the Belfast headquarters of the Northern Bank after the last weekend before Christmas  -  when its vaults were stuffed with cash.

Before the weekend, said the prosecutor, Ward swapped shifts to ensure that on the Monday he and Mr McMullan would be the keyholders to open the safes.

At 10pm on the Sunday evening, Mr McMullan and Ward answered knocks at their doors.

At the McMullan house, two men began terrorising the bank manager and his wife, threatening them with violence unless they followed orders.

At Ward's however, no weapons were produced or violence used by the men who entered, and his family was allowed to disperse and sleep in their own beds.

Ward was driven to Mr McMullan's house. The pair were instructed to go to work as normal the next day, and left alone.

At the bank, Ward popped out for 25 minutes. Mr Kerr said: 'He said he had gone to pick up a present from a jewellers, and he'd then gone for a sandwich and Coke.

Mr McMullan was then told to dismiss other staff, and the pair packed the money into boxes.

Two robbers arrived in a van, and allegedly had a whispered conversation with Ward before driving off with the cash.

Soon after the pair were told they were free, and the same evening Mrs McMullan emerged unhurt from a forest where her car had been torched.

The IRA has denied any involvement. The case continues.

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