Fake patient leads armed robbery at medical centre

Three armed men robbed two doc­tors and an­oth­er man at a med­ical cen­tre in St Au­gus­tine on Wednes­day evening, es­cap­ing with cash, jew­ellery and a cell­phone.

Po­lice said the rob­bery took place at around 5.20 pm at the Life Care Med­ical and Den­tal Cen­tre.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said a 54-year-old gen­er­al prac­ti­tion­er was ex­am­in­ing a man who had en­tered the of­fice pos­ing as a pa­tient. Af­ter com­plet­ing a med­ical ques­tion­naire, the man was es­cort­ed to an ex­am­i­na­tion room.

While the doc­tor was con­duct­ing the ex­am­i­na­tion, a sec­ond man en­tered, an­nounced a rob­bery and tied the doc­tor's hands with black ca­ble ties. The as­sailants stole his 24-karat gold chain with a round gold pen­dant bear­ing the Ara­bic word "Al­lah", val­ued at $30,000, be­fore es­cort­ing him to a back room and or­der­ing him to sit.

About three min­utes lat­er, an­oth­er 54-year-old doc­tor, who was in his of­fice, heard screams. When he went to in­ves­ti­gate, he was con­front­ed by one of the sus­pects, who an­nounced a rob­bery. He was or­dered in­to a room on the east­ern side of the build­ing, forced to the floor and his hands were tied with black ca­ble ties.

A 36-year-old self-em­ployed man, who was in the first doc­tor's of­fice, was al­so con­front­ed by one of the gun­men. He was or­dered out of the of­fice, robbed of a black Sam­sung A26 cell­phone val­ued at $2,600 and tak­en to the same room, where his hands were tied and he was forced to sit on the floor.

About 15 min­utes lat­er, the first doc­tor man­aged to free him­self. When he re­turned to his of­fice, he dis­cov­ered that US$20,000 and TT$40,000 had been stolen from a desk draw­er.

The three sus­pects es­caped be­fore po­lice ar­rived.