The Sunday World is paying a Bank of Ireland employee after suggesting he was involved as the inside man in a €7.6 million bank heist in Ireland in 2009. The employee, Shane Travers, and his girlfriend’s family were held at gunpoint in 2009. Traverse was then sent to get the money from the bank and give it to the kidnappers in order to safely free his girlfriend’s family.
In an apology read in court, the newspaper said it “unreservedly accepts that Shane Travers did not participate in any way whatsoever in this serious crime” and “was a wholly innocent victim of the Tiger kidnappers who was subject to a terrifying ordeal when he and his then girlfriend’s family were apprehended by a violent criminal gang,” according to the Irish Times.
iMediaEthics has written to lawyers for the World and Travers asking for more information about the settlement. We’ll update with any new information.
Bank of Ireland’s head of communications told iMediaEthics by e-mail, “As Bank of Ireland was not a party to this case it has no comment in relation to the outcome, nor does the bank comment on individual employee matters.”
The January 2010 Sunday World article carried the headlines and subheadlines “€7.6m heist ‘was nothing to do with me’” and “But gardaí [police] still convinced kidnap gang had inside info on bank stash.” A search of the World‘s website by iMediaEthics produced no apology statement to Travers.
“Travers had been working at the BOI cash centre for some two years before the heist occurred,” the Irish Times reported. “He remains a paid employee of BOI but has been incapable of returning to work since the heist, he told the jury.”
The Irish Times added, “The Sunday World article stated gardai had within 24 hours of the raid recovered an estimated €4m and two men had been charged in connection with the heist.”
UPDATED: 7/8/2016 2:59 PM EST