By Conor Sharkey

CALLS have been made for anyone dealing in cash in the run up to Christmas to review their security arrangements following a Tiger Kidnapping type incident in Lifford.

The incident occurred at around 9.20am on Monday when an employee of Toot Takes All Bookmakers was threatened into a delivering a sum of money to a specified location.

Nobody was injured in the course of the incident but the victim is understood to be badly shaken.

The incident comes just weeks after a similar incident in Sion Mills.

Then, a young shopkeeper was forced to withdraw a large sum of money from his work premises and deliver them to a group of masked men in the area.

The young man's car was later found partially torched in Donnyloop.

Condemning the latest incident, SDLP councillor Eugene McMenamin said that those involved in criminality appear to have the practice of Tiger Kidnapping their victims down to perfection.

"Anyone dealing in large sums of money, particularly at this time of year, need to be extra careful.

"This has happened on many occasions in this locality and it appears there are people keeping an eye on businesses with one aim - to rob them.

"I'm sure this was a very traumatic experience for whoever was involved and it does seem that thieves have this type of Tiger Kidnapping crime off to perfection, which is worrying.

"I can't stress enough to anyone dealing in large sums of cash the importance of personal security and I would ask everyone in the run-up to Christmas to be extra careful.

"And if anyone has any information about this robbery, then do get in touch with the PSNI or the Garda," Mr McMenamin added.

A Garda spokesman said, "Gardai in Lifford are investigating an incident in which an employee of a shop operating under duress delivered a sum of money to a location specified by unknown persons. Nobody was injured in the course of the incident."