Lawyer to be quizzed over G4S robbery

By Cyrus Ombati

Police want to question a prominent lawyer over the theft of $300,000 from a cash-in-transit van.

This follows a surprise confession by the Administration Police officer that surrendered dramatically hours after the Friday robbery.

The development adds a new twist to revelations about the crime that left security chiefs wondering how to tighten security for cash in transit. The robbery once again put G4S on the spot only two months after another heist where some of its staff members and police officers stole Sh34 million at Yaya Centre in Nairobi.

The AP officer who turned himself in three hours after the Friday incident is said to have confessed the lawyer was one of the masterminds of the robbery.

No recoveries had been made by on Sunday and police said the AP was no longer co-operating.

"He claims the advocate of the High Court helped in planning and executing the incident but we are not sure of that," said a highly placed source that asked not to be named.

The driver of the G4S van is still at large. Detectives from the Flying Squad and Special Crimes Prevention Unit are trying to trace him.

Tracking device

Preliminary investigations have shown that the crew escorting the money knew how much it was and that the van did not have a tracking device.

"Normally, the crew is never informed how much is in transit but in this case, it seems they knew," says the source.

"We want to know how and why."

G4S has offered a reward of Sh1.2 million to anyone helps police catch those involved.

The theft, which seemed well planned and executed, happened on Friday afternoon when the cash-loaded van was headed for Wilson Airport. Police and witnesses said the van had been driven to the CFC-Stanbic Bank Waiyaki Way Branch in Nairobi where the money was loaded. There were three men in the van: the driver, a G4S commander and an armed AP sergeant. Two other armed policemen followed in an escort car with another driver.

It is, however, unclear how the van sped off after being loaded, leaving the escort car behind. The driver of the escort saloon car says it failed to start. He later realised that the car had the wrong ignition key.

The driver of the van sped towards Museum Hill and stopped at the nearby Parklands roundabout where the driver asked his colleague from G4S, the commander of the team, to alight and adjust the side mirror. However, when the commander stepped out, the driver sped off, leaving him at the roadside. This left the G4S driver and the AP in the van with the Sh22 million in US dollars.

The two are believed to have driven to an unknown destination where they loaded the money to a different car.

They then drove the van to Chemilil Road in Ngara area where they abandoned it outside a women’s hostel with the ignition key.

A guard at a nearby house says he saw an unarmed officer remove a SIM card from his mobile phone and destroy it before leaving in a hurry. The AP sergeant turned himself in at the Security of Government Building (SGB) offices along Mbagathi Road three hours after the robbery.

Chase cars

Six police officers and some former G4S staff members have since been charged in connection with the Yaya Centre robbery. Some are alleged to have robbed the initial robbers instead of recovering the loot.

In the past, two police officers rode in vans transporting cash. However, this changed three years ago when robbers gunned down three officers on the Nakuru-Njoro road and stole Sh22 million.

Then Internal Security Minister John Michuki directed that police officers be provided with chase cars to trail the vans. With the recent robberies, police chiefs will now have to go back to the drawing board.