A QUEENSLAND bank manager who claimed he was forced to rob AUD$40,000 from his own bank branch by Irish revolutionaries has been found not guilty of the theft.

John Thomas Forrester, 51, claimed that he was carjacked and taken hostage by two men who injected him with what they said was a poison to which they had a cure.

The men said that if he stole the money and handed it over, they would give him details on where he could find a tablet which would save him from the effects of the life-threatening poison, Forrester said.

He also claimed that one of the pair had an Irish accent and indicated that the funds would be used for the revolutionary cause of stopping his people’s oppression.

Forrester’s defence lawyer told the court that police were unable to prove that his crazy story wasn’t true or establish an alternative motive for the theft.

The jury clearly wasn’t convinced that his explanation of the crazy events behind the robbery was a fabrication and acquitted him. Although having admitted to the theft, he could be acquitted because the bank’s policy is to comply with raiders and he was under extreme duress at the time, according to the Courier Mail.