Six persons including two females were yesterday remanded to prison after they denied robbing Giftland’s GTT outlet of millions of dollar in cash and a cheque during last week.
Andrea Dover, 25, a cleaner of Lot 616 ‘D’ Field Sophia; Quason Roberts, 30, a businessman of Lot 22 Tucville, Georgetown; Ashley Mansfield, 27, a cleaner of Lot 100 Victoria Road Plaisance, East Coast Demerara (ECD); Jamal Haley, 24, a labourer of Lot 461 ‘D’ Field, Sophia; Ryan Goodluck, 24 of Lot 928 Herstelling Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara and Osman Brummell, 39, a vendor of Lot 63 Cross Street, Werk-en-Rust appeared before Magistrate Alicia George at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court Two.
They were charged jointly in relation to the robbery which occurred on Thursday, September 8.
The suspects pleaded not guilty to the charge and were remanded to prison.
The matter was adjourned to October 26th.
Police conducted an intelligence-led operation last weekend during which the suspects were arrested at various locations.
They also recovered over $2.6 million in cash and the suspected getaway vehicle, a Toyota Raum motor vehicle, PKK 7701 was impounded.
The suspects were all questioned during which three of them reportedly admitted to being involved in the crime. They provided investigators with details about their roles in the robbery.
Sources told Stabroek News that one accused told detectives that she was approached by one of the other accused some time ago and asked about the movement of cash from the business as well as the entrances, exits and the hours the business closes.
Another suspect took investigators to the Plaisance bus park where he made contact with a bus driver, who handed over $1.1m to the police.
Stabroek News understands that the suspects were paid sums varying from $500,000 to $1.1m for their parts in the robbery. They also said that they used the money for various purposes. This newspaper was told that one of the suspects told the police that he purchased new clothing and covered his mother’s medical bill.
In one instance, one suspect passed on her share to a relative to keep while another gave a friend his. Police were able to locate both individuals and the amounts of $1.1M and $785,000 were recovered, respectively.
Armed bandits, who posed as security guards from a private security firm carried out the robbery during which they carted off $13,420,487 in currency and $6,015,524 in a cheque.
Police had confirmed that the robbery occurred around 9.45 pm. They said two of the perpetrators carried guns and were dressed in the uniform of the security service that usually attends to the outlet.
