Money ‘flew around’ at robbery scene

Press, 30 January 1986, Page 9

Money ‘flew around’ at robbery scene

Money "flew around” as a man ran from a bank agency he had just robbed of $5908, according to evidence heard in the District Court yesterday.

Brian Robert Welsh, aged 36, a sickness beneficiary, faced a charge of robbing a teller at the Bank of New Zealand’s Linwood agency, in Buckleys Road, of $5908 when armed with an imitation firearm on November 22.

After depositions or statements of 16 prosecution witnesses had been heard, Dr K. M. Goh and Mr J. B. Graham, Justices of the Peace, committed Welsh to the High Court for trial. They remanded him in custody, pending a date for trial.

Mr D. C. Fitzgerald, for Welsh, reserved his defence.

Detective Sergeant N. T. Higgison prosecuted.

Most witnesses’ evidence was submitted in statement form for the preliminary hearing, without their having to appear in court.

A housewife, Jillian May Faulkner, gave evidence of walking along an alleyway in which the bank branch was situated, about midday on November 22, and seeing a person approaching wearing an overcoat and pulling a balaclava down over his face. He wore sunglasses. It was a very hot day

and the man seemed a bit strange. He carried a used, screwed-up paper bag and appeared to be holding something else in his arm because it was “quite an armful.”

The witness said she saw the man’s face for probably five seconds before he turned into the bank. He passed within 3 metres of her. She was not certain if the defendant in Court was the person she saw.

She saw through a window the back of a man at the counter and heard a comment like: “Give me money.” Shortly after, he ran from the bank, telling Miss Faulkner to get out of the way as he passed her.

The witness did not notice the paper bag, but saw money “flying around.”

He ran along the alleyway towards Buckleys Road.

Stephen John Petersen, a fitter’s mate employed at the time on a nearby construction site, gave evidence of seeing a Holden car stop and park and a passenger get out. He could not identify this man; he saw only half his face.

The man carried what looked like a firearm, wrapped in newspaper, under an arm. He also

carried a paper bag in his other hand. The witness called out to people in the alleyway that the man was going to rob the bank. He ran back to the building site to get help, and then saw the man run along Buckleys Road towards the parked car.

The man got into the passenger’s seat and was driven away. Maria Anne Lee said she was working as a teller at the Buckleys Road agency that day. A man approached the counter and said: “Give me money.” He repeated the request several times and said he would give her five seconds.

The man held a bundle wrapped in newspaper, and a barrel protruded from this.

He threw a brown paper, supermarket type bag on to the counter and told Miss Lee to put the money in the bag. She took money from the cash drawer and put it on the counter and the man scooped it up into the bag, and then ran from the bank. Miss Lee’s statement said she could not remember much about the man’s face as it was mostly covered up. He wore a dark brown balaclava, and grey overalls. The man was European.

The witness later checked her till, and found that $5908.76 was missing.

The only other staff member of the agency, Ivan John Moore, said in his statement that after the man left the bank, he was chased by six or seven people.

Mr Moore followed the man, and wrote on his hand what he thought was the correct number of the car.

Police evidence was given that the Holden car alleged to have been the getaway car was later located. Items found in it included a grey dust coat, a brown balaclava, and a $2O, and $2 note.

A search of a house in Kilmore Street, which Welsh was said to have occupied, revealed a paper bag containing $940, hidden behind the bottom drawer of a tallboy. Under a mattress another $271 was found. A firearm was also seized from this address by police. Welsh was spoken to on the evening of the bank robbery, and he carried $319.80 in his trouser pockets. At the request of Mr Fitzgibbon the Justices ruled the interim suppression of the contents of a written statement made by Welsh to a detective.