BANK ROBBERY

Northern Advocate, 29 September 1926, Page 2

BANK ROBBERY

BY ARMED MEN. TWO ARRESTS MADE. PERTH, This Day. With amazing calmness and without attracting the attention of anyone save that of a woman, who saw them walk away from the bank, two armed men entered Mount Lawley branch of the Western Australian Bank, at the corner of Walcott Street and Beaufort Street, in the city boundary, during lunch-hour, and got away with £335 in notes and £2O in silver. Within two hours two detectives arrested two men who arrived from England four months ago, and recovered the missing money in their room at the Y.M.C.A. hostel in Murray Street, city. The Mount Lawley branch of the bank, which is only about a mile and a half from .the centre of the city, and at a busy tram intersection, is a small office for the transaction of suburban business, and in charge of Leslie John Fitzgerald, 29 years, who has Raymond Frank Lynch, 17, as an assistant. They were preparing their lunch behind a screen in the banking chamber shortly after midday, when’ they were suddenly confronted by two armed men, who appeared simultaneously from different directions, and commanded them to put up their hands. Taken completely by surprise and unarmed, the manager's revolver being under the bank counter, both complied without resistance.

The robbers then ordered Fitzgerald and Lynch to walk .backwards into the front office, where they got the manager’s revolver and demanded his keys. Securing these, one of the men quickly opened 'the bank safe and helped himself to notes and coin, after which, at the point of a revolver, they drove the officials into a small storeroom at the rear and locked them inside. The robbers then strolled out the front door and down Beaufort Street towards the city. The only person who observed them was a woman, who says they walked for about 50 yards till they reached a vacant block, through which they ran out of sight. Meantime, the bank officials set themselves the task of breaking out of the room in which they were imprisoned. A few minutes sufficed to smash the door, and Fitzgerald .promptly telephoned to .the Criminal Investigation Department’s headquarters, from which DetectiveInspector Condon despatched seven detectives to the scene. The detectives obtained from the bank officials good descriptions of the robbers, and then broke up in parties to make inquiries throughout the city. Detectives Blight and Triat visited ■the Y.M.C.A. hostel in the city about two hours later, and while making inquiries there saw two men answering, to the description given by the bank ■officials, except that their attire was ! different. Both men walked out into the street, and the detectives followed and arrested them without trouble, and ■took them to police station. They denied any connection with the robbery, but when taken back to their room at the hostel, the whole of the missing money was found behind a wardrobe, and clothing answering to the description of that worn at the time of the robbery was discovered in the room. Both men were charged with having, in company, stolen from Leslie John Fitzgerald, with actual violence, £385, and at the isame time were armed with pistols.