Securicor Robber To Be 'Stripped' Of Assets

A serial criminal who was jailed over an armed raid on a G4 Securicor van in Antrim is to be hit in his wallet too.

Seamus Cunningham, 36, will forfeit a substantial interest in a domestic property at Dundrod, Co Antrim, and seven bank accounts.

The convicted robber is to hand over assets worth £170,000 in a settlement with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), it has emerged.

Cunningham was jailed for six years in 2006 for his part in cash-in-transit robbery.

The authorities targeted him because they believed they could prove his assets were obtained illegally, with mortgage and benefit fraud and tax evasion believed to have been involved.

SOCA – previously the Assets Recovery Agency - secured a property freezing order in February 2007, after a consent order was agreed at the High Court.

The targeting of assets has been ongoing as last year, the Assets Recovery Agency secured a Property Freezing Order (PFO) on an estimated £180,000 worth of assets held by Cunningham and his partner of Dundrod, Co Antrim.

At the time they said these included the Dundrod property; a share in a property situated at Colinmill, Belfast; a Rover 25 Turbo Diesel car; two TAG Heuer watches and money contained in a range of bank accounts.

The Agency alleged in court that these assets represented the proceeds of criminal activities as well as nine convictions for theft. Additionally, the former ARA alleged in court that he may have been involved in mortgage and credit card fraud.

Inquiries continued while Cunningham, whose criminal record stretches back more than 20 years and includes convictions for armed robbery, theft, burglary, handling, going equipped and benefit fraud, remained in jail.

Cunningham was one of six men from west Belfast remanded in custody following the robbery at the bank in Antrim.

Seamus Cunningham, of Colinwell in Poleglass and the others all pleaded 'not guilty' to charges of robbing a G4 Securicor cash courier of £25,000 outside an Ulster Bank branch in the town, but was later convicted.

See: Six men remanded in custody following attempted bank robbery

(BMcC)