Court releases robbery vehicles to owners

National

By DEMAS TIEN
AN armoured vehicle belonging to a security company and a private vehicle used during the K5.9 million robbery in Port Moresby four years ago have been released to their owners.
Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika issued orders on Friday for the release of the two vehicles following the completion of the case against the six men involved in the robbery.
The six men were Casper Louise, 46, from Morobe, Paul Steven, 35, from Eastern Highlands, Samson Banaso, 47, from Eastern Highlands, Hubert Korede, 48, from Northern, Stewart Korina, 30, from Northern, and Gelison William, 39, from Milne Bay.
They were convicted on April 14 for stealing and conspiracy to stealing the K5.9 million cash from the G4S security company.
The money belonged to Maybank Limited (now Kina Bank).
The court on June 2 jailed Louise and Steven for 25 years each and the others for 20 years each.
The armoured vehicle belonged to the G4S security company.
The private vehicle belonged to a businesswoman in Port Moresby.
The court heard that at about 8am on Oct 4, 2013, there was a call from Maybank Ltd to G4S office asking to transport seven boxes containing cash from Maybank’s office in Waigani to the Bank of PNG in Downtown.
The court heard that instead of moving the seven boxes, the six men took 19 boxes containing K5,960,000.
The armoured vehicle carrying the cash  did not reach BPNG but was driven to another location where the boxes were transferred to a vehicle and taken to a residence at East Boroko.