AN engineer with security firm G4S who claims he was forced by gunmen to burgle an ATM of almost £40,000 has gone on trial accused of carrying out the raid.
Belfast Crown Court was told that the duress claims of 52-year-old John Patterson, of Carwood Way in Newtownabbey, were "nothing more than a fabrication".
Patterson denies a total of four charges - the December 2011 burglary of the Northern Bank ATM attached to a north Belfast supermarket, and three counts of converting criminal property.
The jury heard this involved lodging £8,800 in cash into various accounts the day after the burglary and making a £3,528 cash deposit on a caravan, all allegedly from the £38,000 taken in the raid.
Prosecution lawyer James Johnston said Patterson accepts he carried out the burglary but made the case he was acting under duress.
He said the engineer claimed that on December 6 or 7, about six day before the raid at the Cavehill supermarket, he was forced into a car by two masked gunmen.
They showed him photographs of his wife and family and told him they would be shot if he did not agree to carry out the burglary, after taking the keys to the ATM 'bunker' from a G4S vault at its Mallusk HQ.
Mr Johnston claimed that despite guidelines from G4S on how to deal with such 'tiger kidnap' situations, Patterson did not inform the security firm or work colleagues even after the burglary.
The prosecutor also claimed that while he said he was living in fear for himself and his family, "it did not stop him going out for Christmas drinks with colleagues".
Mr Patterson said even if such an approach had been made to him by gunmen, he had "ample opportunity to contact the police or G4S and let them know what was happening".
Trial judge Gordon Kerr and the jury were read a set of "agreed facts" between the prosecution and defence, in which the ATM engineer admitted the burglary but claimed he was acting under duress.
It was further agreed that following his arrest at his home on January 20 2012 he was interviewed twice, during which he told police he was "assaulted and threatened that his family would be shot or killed".
Patterson also admitted that the following day he lodged monies into building society and bank accounts, and that in April 2012 he bought a caravan in Portrush, making a cash deposit of £3,528 with the remainder by way of credit finance.
However, it was also agreed that Patterson's various accounts "did show that he had an additional source of income other than his G4S employment" before the burglary, and that he had "spoke of doing DIY work".
At hearing.
