Devon Evans, Gleaner Writer

OCHO RIOS, St. Ann:

High Court Judge Justice Marva Bishop will hand down sentence on January 18 on two men charged with the 2005 robbery of over $150 million from a Guardsman armoured vehicle in St. Ann.

The two men, Copeland Samuels of a Waltham Park Road address and Harvey Green of Bay Farm Road, both in St. Andrew, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of illegal possession of firearm and robbery with aggravation.

Both were originally charged with five counts arising out of an incident on the night of March 2005 when a Guardsman armoured vehicle transporting a large quantity of cash was held up by two of the four employees of the company who were travelling in the vehicle. The robbery took place on the Haddon main road, near Walkerswood in St. Ann.

No other charges

At the special sitting of the Gun Court, Crown Counsel Maxine Jackson decided not to proceed with the other charges following the guilty plea by the two accused. It was reported that on March 2, 2005, both Samuels and Green travelled with two other colleagues from Kingston to pick up cash at the Ocho Rios office of Guardsman Limited. The dramatic series of events began shortly after 10 p.m. when the crew of the armoured vehicle collected the money and was heading back to Kingston.

On reaching a section of the Haddon main road, one of the guards who was travelling in the front of the vehicle pulled his gun and pointed it in the face of the driver and ordered him to stop. The other rogue guard, who was travelling in the back of the vehicle, then held up and disarmed the crew master of his firearm.

Daring escape

A car then drove up and stopped beside the armoured vehicle and a man alighted and took charge of the steering wheel, with the driver sitting in the middle. The vehicle was driven on to the Windalco property where the driver was handcuffed to the steering wheel. However, as the guards opened the back door, the crew master reportedly jumped from the vehicle and escaped into the dark woodland. The other guards then made their escape with the cash in the waiting motor vehicle.

The police, who later recovered the armoured vehicle, reported that they found $30 million in it which had been left behind by the robbers.