Trial on bank robbery count

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 7

Trial on bank robbery count

A man said to have been seen committing a robbery of the Bank of New Zealand's Linwood agency on November 22 ran from the building, knocking a woman’s pram and dropping $2O into it as he rah to a getaway car according to evidence in the High Court yesterday.

The accused, Brian Robert Welsh, aged 36, a sickness beneficiary, denied a charge of robbing a teller at the bank agency, in Buckleys Road, of $5908 when armed with an imitation firearm. The trial, before Mr Justice Hardie Boys and a jury will continue today. Sixteen prosecution witnesses will be called.

Mr B. M. Stanaway appears for the Crown and Mr D. C. Fitzibbon for Welsh.

Mr Stanaway, opening the Crown’s case, said Welsh was alleged to have entered the bank agency’s premises in Buckleys Road about midday on November 22, wearing a grey dustcoat, balaclava, and sunglasses. He was then said to have demanded money from bank staff, and brandished an imitation firearm, which was wrapped up but with the barrel protruding. He asked that a bag he

placed on the counter be filled with money. Staff put an amount, later found to be $5908, on to the counter and the man put it in the bag and ran from the building.

Bank staff and workmen from a construction site followed the man, who got into the passenger’s seat of a car and was driven away.

The car was found about 10 minutes later in Tancred Street, and was found to be a vehicle stolen from Scargili 10 days before. Items found in the car included a grey dustcoat, a balaclava, a $2O note and a $2 note. Police Inquiries led to their visiting a flat at which Welsh was alleged to have stayed. A sum of money in a brown paper bag was found hidden in a set of drawers in a bedroom. An imitation firearm was also found in the flat and an occupant said he had noticed the weapon missing in the morning but that it was back on the wall later in the day.

When Welsh was found by the police later in the day he had $319.80 in the pockets of his trousers. A housewife, Jillian May Faulkner, gave evidence that while walking along an alleyway in which the bank agency

was situated she saw a man approaching wearing an overcoat and pulling a balaclava down over his face.

He carried a screwedup paper bag and held something else in his arm. He entered the bank and she saw him at the counter and heard a comment like “Give me money.” Soon after, he ran from the bank, telling witness to get out of the way. He knocked her pram, and a $2O note fell into it. Evidence of a man dressed in overalls and wearing a balaclava entering the bank and demanding money was given by a teller, Maria Anne Lee. The man held a bundle wrapped in newspaper and a barrel protruded from this. He told witness to put money into a brown paper bag which he threw on the counter. She took money from a cash drawer and the man scooped it up into his bag, and then ran from the bank. Miss Lee said she could not remember much about the man’s face as it was covered up. She later checked the till and found $5908 missing.

Other evidence was that the man was seen to run to a car in Buckleys Road and was driven away.