Thugs disguised as G4S guards steal Sh80 million from Co-operative Bank

By Cyrus Ombati

Thugs disguised as G4S personnel walked into a commercial bank in the city centre and seized Sh80 million.

The five men, who included two in police uniforms, seemed to have prior information that the money was to be collected from Co-operative Bank headquarters and later fed to various ATMs in the Kilimani area.

They used a van that they had painted with G4S colours to collect the money and later abandoned it in Upper Hill during the 1 o’clock incident.

Inside the van, they abandoned a cap, a tie, and two iron sheet boxes.

A guard at a home near where the van was abandoned said a police officer armed with a G3 rifle alighted from the vehicle and later opened the bonnet saying it had overheat.

“The officer asked me to get him water to cool the radiator. When I brought it in a mug, he asked for a rag. When I came back, I did not find them and the bonnet was still open,” he said.

The guard said the officer and four other men boarded a white car that had arrived with luggage and drove off.

He waited for them to come back in vain. He then alerted his bosses that a G4S van had been abandoned there.

The bank realised the money had been stolen when genuine G4S personnel arrived hours later ready to collect the money as planned.

“It seems to be a well planned and executed work. Most likely, it is an inside job involving some officials of the bank and the security firm,” said a senior officer.

G4S later sent a statement confirming their client had lost the money after fraudsters posing as G4S Cash In Transit (CIT) crew stole a cash consignment of Sh80 million from Co-operative Bank.

Communications manager Dan Okoth said the gang was driving in a vehicle kitted and branded like the blue G4S CIT vans.

“The fraudsters picked up the cash consignment and later abandoned the van in Kilimani where police recovered the vehicle,” said Okoth.

Detectives from Special Crimes Prevention Unit, Kilimani and Central CID offices visited the bank and interrogated a number of managers last night.

Kilimani OCPD Bernard Muli said no arrest or recovery has been made but officers are pursuing the case.

The incident was the latest targeting the security company. In May, a man disguised as a staffer stole Sh8.3 million that had been sent from Kisumu to Nairobi.

In February the company staff stole Sh313 million that was being transported from various banks to a strong room by G4S personnel and police.

G4S has since been ordered to re-vet their personnel and install tracking services on all their vehicles involved in CIT services for easier monitoring of their movements to address the problem.