Suspect charged in Tobago ATM heist

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

One sus­pect has been charged in con­nec­tion with a brazen ATM heist in Ply­mouth on June 24.

Po­lice have con­firmed Sher­man Irvine, 35, of Black Rock, To­ba­go, has been charged with a se­ries of of­fences re­lat­ed to an elab­o­rate rob­bery that left five ban­dits emp­ty-hand­ed. Irvine ap­peared in court on Fri­day and was de­nied bail.

Po­lice say the sus­pects first held up three es­tate con­sta­bles at a To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly fa­cil­i­ty in Cour­land around 1.30 am and stole a back­hoe and three-tonne truck.

They then made their way to Shel­bourne Street, three kilo­me­tres away, and ripped the First Cit­i­zens ATM vault from a build­ing us­ing the back­hoe. How­ev­er, the ban­dits were un­able to load the vault on­to the truck as the back­hoe’s arm was dam­aged.

One of the sus­pects dressed as Bat­man was seen in CCTV footage un­suc­cess­ful­ly at­tempt­ing to lift the vault in­to the tray.

Sev­er­al sus­pects were ar­rest­ed days lat­er, but on­ly Irvine has been charged thus far. His case had been ad­journed to Oc­to­ber 5.

He faces three counts of rob­bery, two counts of false im­pris­on­ment, three counts of ma­li­cious dam­age, break in and lar­ce­ny.

Po­lice told Guardian Me­dia the in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­mains open as they search for the al­leged ac­com­plices.

Mean­while, First Cit­i­zens has de­com­mis­sioned the ATM, leav­ing res­i­dents in Ply­mouth and en­vi­rons up­set over the in­con­ve­nience. They say the ATM’s ab­sence has dis­rupt­ed their lives and is af­fect­ing busi­ness sales. Ply­mouth/Black Rock elec­toral rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kern Alex­is is ex­pect­ed to write to the bank to ad­vo­cate for the re­turn of the ATM on their be­half.