12 November 1998 Edition
``Informer'' target arrested
By Peadar Whelan
The RUC's attempt to recruit a man from the New Lodge Road area of North Belfast took a sinister turn last week when the man was arrested and taken to Banbridge RUC barracks.
The RUC arrived at the man's home at 8am last Thursday as An Phoblacht, which reported the man's story, went on sale.
The man said, ``I think it was no coincidence that I was arrested just as my story was being made public''.
As with their previous dealings with the man the RUC questioned him about his financial affairs and accused him of defrauding two women who worked for him and claimed they arrested him on the back of statements made by one of the women.
The second woman, according to the man, was not involved in his arrest.
Despite RUC claims that he had not paid the woman wages due to her he says the matter was cleared up in August - the time when the RUC started to pursue their campaign against the young nationalist.
While in Banbridge RUC barracks the man asked to see a doctor as he suffers anxiety and although the RUC agreed to his request the doctor did not arrive until 12 noon, just 30 minutes before he was released.
The man had been questioned in his solicitor's presence for a number of hours.
Speaking to An Phoblacht the man says he will not allow the RUC to intimidate him and will take the matter as far as it has to go to get the RUC off his back.
In last week's report we disclosed that the RUC had gained access to the man's bank account to garner information about him.
In a similar case a Glasgow republican has told An Phoblacht that Glasgow police used his confidential bank records to gain information about him. The man believes the information may have been the first step in an attempt to recruit him.
Curiously the man received a letter from his local Clydesdale bank saying that a Detective Inspector Ross has asked for information about the man's account.
On hearing this the man went to his solicitor who contacted Ross. Ross in turn asked if the man could come to see him but stated ``he is not in trouble'', so the solicitor arranged a meeting for the next day.
The following day, before leaving for the meeting, the solicitor phoned to confirm the meeting only to be told by Ross the matter might be cleared up by phone.
Ross then described a bizarre scenario saying that an assault occurred in Glasgow city centre which the police picked up on their CCTV network however both the assailant and the person attacked had ``vanished''.
Ross added, ``the man assaulted looked similar to a man who had shortly before made a withdrawal from the city centre Clydesdale cashpoint and this man was similar in appearance to your client''.
When the solicitor confirmed his client was not the man in question Ross stated bluntly that the matter was now closed.
However, according to the Glasgow man the matter is not closed as he says he lives nowhere near the cash dispenser where this alleged attack happened and asks why the police, if they believed an assault had occurred didn't go to the bank get the assaulted man's details and go straight to him.
``Anyway'', he asks, ``how did they know that the person attacked looked like me or know I was a customer of Clydesdale?''.
The answer to that may lie in the fact that three weeks ago the man travelled to Belfast and gave police, who stopped him, his bank card as ID. Those who stopped him took down his details and the man believes the police then used this information as part of a trawling operation to track him down and pressurise him.
The man is now pursuing a complaint against DI Ross.
The RUC's attempt to recruit a man from the New Lodge Road area of North Belfast took a sinister turn last week when the man was arrested and taken to Banbridge RUC barracks.
The RUC arrived at the man's home at 8am last Thursday as An Phoblacht, which reported the man's story, went on sale.
The man said, ``I think it was no coincidence that I was arrested just as my story was being made public''.
As with their previous dealings with the man the RUC questioned him about his financial affairs and accused him of defrauding two women who worked for him and claimed they arrested him on the back of statements made by one of the women.
The second woman, according to the man, was not involved in his arrest.
Despite RUC claims that he had not paid the woman wages due to her he says the matter was cleared up in August - the time when the RUC started to pursue their campaign against the young nationalist.
While in Banbridge RUC barracks the man asked to see a doctor as he suffers anxiety and although the RUC agreed to his request the doctor did not arrive until 12 noon, just 30 minutes before he was released.
The man had been questioned in his solicitor's presence for a number of hours.
Speaking to An Phoblacht the man says he will not allow the RUC to intimidate him and will take the matter as far as it has to go to get the RUC off his back.
In last week's report we disclosed that the RUC had gained access to the man's bank account to garner information about him.
In a similar case a Glasgow republican has told An Phoblacht that Glasgow police used his confidential bank records to gain information about him. The man believes the information may have been the first step in an attempt to recruit him.
Curiously the man received a letter from his local Clydesdale bank saying that a Detective Inspector Ross has asked for information about the man's account.
On hearing this the man went to his solicitor who contacted Ross. Ross in turn asked if the man could come to see him but stated ``he is not in trouble'', so the solicitor arranged a meeting for the next day.
The following day, before leaving for the meeting, the solicitor phoned to confirm the meeting only to be told by Ross the matter might be cleared up by phone.
Ross then described a bizarre scenario saying that an assault occurred in Glasgow city centre which the police picked up on their CCTV network however both the assailant and the person attacked had ``vanished''.
Ross added, ``the man assaulted looked similar to a man who had shortly before made a withdrawal from the city centre Clydesdale cashpoint and this man was similar in appearance to your client''.
When the solicitor confirmed his client was not the man in question Ross stated bluntly that the matter was now closed.
However, according to the Glasgow man the matter is not closed as he says he lives nowhere near the cash dispenser where this alleged attack happened and asks why the police, if they believed an assault had occurred didn't go to the bank get the assaulted man's details and go straight to him.
``Anyway'', he asks, ``how did they know that the person attacked looked like me or know I was a customer of Clydesdale?''.
The answer to that may lie in the fact that three weeks ago the man travelled to Belfast and gave police, who stopped him, his bank card as ID. Those who stopped him took down his details and the man believes the police then used this information as part of a trawling operation to track him down and pressurise him.
The man is now pursuing a complaint against DI Ross.