6 remanded to prison over GTT’s Giftland multi-million-dollar robbery

Six persons were on Thursday remanded to prison over the GTT’s Giftland Mall multi-million-dollar robbery, which occurred last Thursday.

Those charged are Andrea Dover, 25, Piercy Roberts, 30, Ashley Mansfield, 27, Jamal Haley, 24, Ryan Goodluck, 24, and Osman Brummell, 39.

They were hauled before Magistrate Alisha George in the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court and pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The charge states that on September 8, 2022, at Giftland Mall, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara (ECD), while armed with firearms, they robbed the GTT store of $13.4 million in cash and $6 million in cheques. They were remanded to prison until October 26, 2022.

It was reported that the robbery occurred at about 21:45h, by the men, who were dressed in uniform used by a private security service that usually uplifts money from the outlet when it closes.

According to GTT’s Supervisor, she and five staffers were at the booth when the two suspects, wearing face masks and fully dressed in security uniforms, approached her and checked the bags with the cash as usual.

One of the suspects went outside to the other staff members and pointed a handgun at them. They were instructed to ‘get on the floor,’ to which they complied.

The other suspect, who was in the Supervisor’s room, took out a handgun from the waist of his pants and told her to go on the floor, which she did.

The suspects placed duct tape on the hands and mouths of the staffers and locked them in the booth.

The perpetrators then took the cash and cheques, exited through the back door, made their way into the Giftland parking lot, entered an old white model Raum, and made good their escape heading east on the Railway Embankment.

A short while after, the staff members managed to free themselves, and an alarm was raised, but by that time, the suspects had already left the scene.

On September 10 – 11, detectives from the Police Force’s Major Crimes Unit and Special Branch conducted an intelligence-led operation and arrested Roberts,

At the time of his arrest, one white and black Toyota Raum vehicle, suspected of being the getaway car, was recovered. He was arrested and admitted to being the getaway driver.

He told investigators that after the planning, they placed a white wrap on the roof and bonnet of the car to hide its true identity. Roberts then led the Police back to his home and handed over $500,000 in cash, which was half of the money, he claimed he received from the robbery.

Further, an investigation led detectives to Dover, a Cleaner attached to the GTT’s Giftland location. She was interviewed and admitted, among other things, that she was part of the planning of the robbery.

Dover disclosed that she received $800,000 from an accomplice as her share of the heist. The investigators manage to track down and arrest several more suspects. However, Police only managed to recover $2,696,420.