Bank heist: Security van driver runs away with Rs52 million

Driver was part of a three-man team meant to protect the cash.

FAISALABAD:

A security van driver robbed a bank of Rs52.5 million on Monday evening from three bank branches in Faisalabad.

The driver was part of a three-person security team hired by a bank, which had hired Phoenix Armour to securely transfer cash from three of its branches to the State Bank of Pakistan’s local office.

According to police officials, the van had stopped at the bank branch in the Rail Bazaar area of Faisalabad to collect cash.

Two of the three people in the van got off to collect the money and when they came out, they found that the driver, Sajjad, had driven off with the cash they had collected from other branches.

The guards and staff of the security company called the police after a few minutes and informed them of the robbery.

Police cordoned off the area as they began a search for the driver.

The total amount of cash missing is around Rs52.5 million.

Sources quoted police officials as claiming that they have constituted an investigative team to locate the driver.

They claimed that they had conducted raid on Sajjad’s possible hideouts.

There was no trace of the driver until the filing of this report till late on Monday night.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2011.