23-year-old builder Dominic McEvoy has appeared in Belfast Magistrates Court charged with the £26.5m Northern Bank robbery in the city last December.
Mr McEvoy of Mullandra Park in Kilcoo, Co Down, was also charged with possession of a gun or imitation firearm and the false imprisonment of bank official, Kevin McMullan, and his wife, Karen, as part of the raid last December.
Detective Inspector Sean Wright revealed that the suspect was interviewed seven times after his arrest at his home on Tuesday before charges were levelled against him.
The prosecution case will include evidence that Mr McEvoy's DNA was allegedly found on a hat at the home of the hostages.
He was one of five people arrested in three separate police operations over the past three days, and is the first person to be charged in connection with the robbery.
Two of those men, a 40-year-old and a 25-year-old, have now been released without charge, while two remain in custody.
During the course of police searches yesterday in Tyrone in connection with the investigation, £33,000 and €17,000 together with 148,000 cigarettes were seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
