Robbers avoid surveillance camera and steal $200,000 from Scotia Bank

Four men armed with guns walked through a door on the eastern side of the Ellerslie Plaza branch of Scotia Bank around 7.15 pm on Tuesday and got away with over $200,000 in cash.

Although there was a surveillance camera in operation inside the bank, there was no record of the drama on the tape that was played by the police yesterday. According to reports, after ordering a bank teller to hand over the money, the gunmen opened safety deposit boxes which were relieved of their contents. Reports said that at the time about 10 employees and two cleaners were in the bank. Conflicting reports have emerged as to how the armed men were able to gain entrance through a door that should have been locked at the time. An employee of the bank said that he had checked the door on the eastern side, after the two guards left at 6 pm, and the door was locked.

Police believe that the bandits had a key for the door. Speaking on behalf of Managing Director, Richard Young, the senior manager of sales and marketing, Simone Penco, said the bank could not understand how the front door came to be open at the time the robbers walked in. She said the bank was still calculating the exact amount of money that had been taken. Investigators were yesterday questioning how the door came to be open for the bank robbers to gain entry into the building. Police reports revealed that the gunmen announced a robbery and ordered everyone to lie on the ground. They then ordered one of the tellers to hand over cash which was already stored in money bags.

The gunmen then ordered a teller to open a vault where several safety deposit boxes were kept and filled the bags with cash. After spending close to one hour inside the bank, the robbers fled the scene. Officers of the St Clair Police Station were contacted and a party of officers led by ACP (Crime) Oswyn Allard, Snr Supt Ali, Ag Supt Denoon, Inspector Rodriguez, Sgts Alleyene, Peterson and others went to the scene. Checks on the bank revealed several prints were lifted for further investigation. Police investigators also seized the tape from a surveillance camera at the bank which should have recorded the entire robbery, but surprisingly the robbery in progress was not recorded. Police investigators believe that the robbers were aware where the surveillance camera was located and they avoided that area. Investigators said that the tape has proven to be useless in the investigation.

Newsday learned that only two of the four bandits were masked. The Manager of the bank Budwin Morales, Young and other managers visited the scene of the robbery yesterday. The bank remained closed for business as police investigators continued to search for clues, and counselling was made available to staff. Security has been increased at the bank which is expected to reopen today for normal business.