The trial of four men accused of having equipment for printing counterfeit currency, has collapsed at the Special Criminal Court over Gardai withholding information about fingerprints from defence lawyers.

57 year-old Anthony Sloan from Ard na Mara, Dundalk, 43 year-old Andrew Poole with an address in Portlaoise,  41 year-old Liam Delaney, and 43 year-old Kevin Flanagan who are both from Borris-in-Ossory, have walked free from Court.

The prosecution was brought after Emergency Response Unit Gardai raided a yard in Laois in 2010 and found the four accused men in a portable cabin.

Officers uncovered a trapdoor hidden under a chest of drawers, which led to an underground bunker made out of two, forty-foot containers.