Family Bank heist was inside job, probe reveals

Family Bank’s Ruiru Town branch. Thugs broke into the facility and carted away over Sh20million. [File, Standard]

What was supposed to have been the script of a well-planned heist worth Sh20 million from the Ruiru Familiy Bank branch went awry when the executors, perhaps in the excitement of the moment, left tale tell signs that blew the case wide open.

Preliminary investigations into the robbery have established that the break-in actually happened from the inside and not outside as security officers had told the police.

Director of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti, who drove to Ruiru to the scene, said the heist was executed by people who were inside the bank.

“We have established that the heist was done by people who worked from the inside because the main door was not tampered with while the back door was opened and not broken into,” Kinoti said.

“The criminals must have been locked in the bank on Friday evening and worked their way to the strong room over Friday night and Saturday. This was an inside operation and not a robbery,” the DCI said.

Initial investigations show that three bank officials and a customer called a Ruiru police boss at about 2pm on Sunday to report the robbery.

When the police visited the scene, they established the door to the strong room had been cut using a blow-torch and the safe had also been broken into.

All the money had been taken but the thugs left behind Sh1 million in crisp notes that were not partially burned as would have happened if all the money had been inside the safe.

The evidence recorded indicated that whoever carried away the money effortlessly entered the bank before blow torching the strong room door and the safe.

There was more blow-torch residue at the strong room door and within the room than there was anywhere else in the bank.

Investigations have also revealed that the fire alarm had been conveniently vandalised as was the security alarm system.

The main door was not tampered with while the two padlocks on the back door had been opened by a bunch of keys that are always left in the strong room.

The investigators are puzzled by the fact that the criminals knew there was the large amount of money kept in the safe on a weekend.