Bank worker accused of £26million 'IRA' robbery walks free after trial collapses

The only man accused of Britain's biggest bank robbery walked free from court yesterday after the collapse of his trial.

Bank official Chris Ward, 26, was said to have provided inside information to the gang which escaped with £26.5million in December 2004.

But in dramatic scenes in Belfast Crown Court, prosecutors announced they would offer no further evidence.

Police blamed the Northern Bank robbery on the Provisional IRA and yesterday's collapse means whoever carried out the heist has, in the words of one bank official, 'got clean away with it'.

Mr Ward was kept under surveillance and arrested almost a year after the raid. He may take legal action against the police.

His solicitor, Niall Murphy, said: 'The whole experience for himself and his family, who were victims of kidnapping, false imprisonment and robbery, was truly devastating.

'This has been compounded by his arrest and being put on trial for a crime he did not commit.'

It was on Sunday December 19, 2004, that three masked men arrived at the Ward family home in Poleglass, West Belfast.

Two men held the family hostage while Mr Ward was driven to the home of his supervisor Kevin McMullan, who was already being held.

Men posing as police officers had tied up Mr McMullan and his wife Kyran at gunpoint. She was taken away and held blindfold for more than 24 hours.

On the Monday morning, the two men were told by their captors to go to work and carry out their normal duties.

Acting on instructions, Mr Ward left the bank carrying a holdall containing about £1million and handed it to a man on the street, in what police believed was a dummy run.

Money was then loaded into crates and collected by a van in two loads from the bank's loading bay.

Explaining the decision not to present more evidence, prosecution counsel Gordon Kerr QC said the case had been based on circumstantial evidence which had been brought into question.