N.Z. woman up on Aust. train robbery count

Press, 29 August 1984, Page 25

N.Z. woman up on Aust. train robbery count

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney A Raetihi woman has appeared in a Queensland court charged in connection with a $48,600 train robbery in March this year. Tracey Ann Ross, aged 22, was charged in the Gladstone Court with an Australian, Gregory Malcolm. The Queensland police said that a second man, also believed to be Australian, was arrested at Broome in Western Australia and would be brought back to Gladstone to face similar charges. Police told the Court that in the early hours of March 29 the train had been waiting at a spot called Toolooa near Gladstone when two men wearing khaki overalls and balaclavas, and brandishing toy pistols, burst into

the guard’s van. The guard and his offsider were handcuffed with toy plastic cuffs, and a box containing a railway payroll in 11 satchels was broken from its chain and thrown off the train.

The men also took the guard's two-way radio before jumping off the train and escaping. The men were later spotted by roadblocks set up around the area, but escaped into the bush. None of the money has been recovered.

Ross is alleged to have played a support role to the two men.

Both Ross and Malcolm have been remanded to reappear on September 3. Ross has been remanded in custody, while Malcolm has been allowed $lO,OOO bail.