Manager thought raid was prank

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 3

Manager thought raid was prank

I PA Invercargill The relieving manager of the Bank of New Zealand’s Lumsden branch first thought that a robbery at the bank in March was a prank, the District Court at Invercargill heard yesterday. All evidence relating to i security at the Bank of New Zealand in Lumsden was suppressed at the opening of a depositions hearing into the $106,000 robbery. Evidence from 56 Crown witnesses will be heard during the hearing, which is expected to take two days. Alistair John Barr, aged 31, of Invercargill, one of two men charged with the robbery, has pleaded not i guilty to robbing Lewis i Graeme Steele, a bank i manager, of $106,780, while being armed with a revolver. The second man alleged to have been involved, Gibson Grace, also of Invercar-

gill, has still not been found by the police. A warrant has been issued for his arrest on the same charge. A Christchurch woman, Nora Mary Brady, said that Gibson Grace, had stayed at her home from the beginning of February to early March, but she had not seen him since then. Mr Steele, of Dunedin, was the relieving manager of the B.N.Z. in Lumsden on March 17. At 11 a.m. that day he was alerted by a disturbance in the public area of the bank.

He heard somebody say, “Everybody freeze,” followed by the word “move” repeated several times.

“For a start I thought it was a local having the staff on. It was only when he shouted ‘everybody move’ that I realised it was serious,” Mr Steele said. Before he could do anything a second person came

into his office. He was wearing a blue jacket, light coloured trousers, a black motor-cycle helmet and gloves. In his left hand the man held a revolver and a B.N.Z. coin bag. Introducing the Crown case, Mr R. Ibbotson said it was alleged that on March 5 a motor-cycle was stolen from a house in Christchurch. On March 17, the B.N.Z. at Lumsden was held up by two masked and “heavily disguised” men, both armed with firearms. One had a pistol and the other a sawnoff 12-gauge shotgun. After taking the money, the two men rode off on the motor-cycle stolen from Christchurch, towards the turn-off from State highway 6, north of Lumsden, to Te Anau.

They rode along this highway (No. 94) for about skm before abandoning the motor-cycle.