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Terror boss Stephen Matthews turned down chance to take Con Club robbed cash
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The Con Club
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The Medway amenity site
A botched robbery may be the reason behind a cash find at a Belfast rubbish dump.
For the Sunday World can reveal that a bungling burglar may have tossed a bag of cash after being rumbled trying to rob the Constitution Club in the east of the city.
And the creamed cash was then sucked up by a ‘street Hoover’ vehicle before being found by council workers at Medway Street dump who thought they’d hit the jackpot.
The Sunday World last week reported on how six workers were being investigated by Belfast City Council after the bag containing several thousand pounds was found by refuse workers.
At the time, Belfast City Council told us that both they and the PSNI were investigating the matter.
This week sources in east Belfast have claimed that the money in fact came from a bungled robbery at the Constitution Club on the Newtownards Road.
A council worker is believed to have panicked that the cash was UVF money.
An individual managed to get his hands on a set of Con Club keys and went to the social club in the early hours of the morning around the turn of the year.
He was allegedly rumbled by a member of staff.
“He noticed his keys were missing so he ran back to the club to find this guy stuffing the money from the till into a plastic bag and the two of them got into a brawl which spilled out onto the street. They were beating lumps out of each other and the bag got tossed away.”
Like something out of a Carry-On crime movie, our sources said the bag was then sucked up in the early hours of the morning by a BCC street cleaning vehicle.
The source added: “The driver saw a £20 note which escaped had stuck to the window of the vehicle, but that sort of thing happens now and again with these types of vehicles, so he thought nothing of it.
“It wasn’t until the boys at the dump emptied the vehicle that they discovered the wads of cash, but days later rumours spread that the cash was UVF money, even though it wasn’t.
“One of the guys was so afraid of reprisal he went to the cops who are now investigating it.”
“He even went to [UVF East Belfast brigadier] Stephen Matthews to tell him he’d give the money back, but Matthews said it had nothing to do with him or the UVF.”
In a statement to the Sunday World, the PSNI said they are currently investigating a link between the robbery of the Constitution Club and the cash find.
A police spokesperson said: “Police are investigating a burglary which occurred at a licensed premises on the Newtownards Road on January 1 2014. It was reported that a sum of cash was taken during this incident.
“Police are also investigating a separate report, which was made on 14 January 2014, that a sum of cash had been found at a refuse site in Belfast. Enquiries are being made as to whether or not these two incidents are linked. Anyone with information in relation to either incident is asked to contact Police at Musgrave on 0845 600 8000 or alternatively information can be provided anonymously to independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
Our source also claimed that the man responsible for the robbery was also involved in another shoplifting incident for which he received a kicking from the UVF.
They said: “A few months ago the same guy went into a butchers near a UVF bar in east Belfast and started stealing meat when the butcher had his back turned.
“He then stupidly went into the bar across the road where a load of UVF men were drinking and tried to flog them the meat. They realised what he’d done and took him outside and gave him a kicking.”