A SUSPECTED bank robber and his alleged accomplice were remanded in custody yesterday in connection with Friday morning’s armed raid on a Bank of Cyprus branch in the Kato Polemidia suburb of Limassol.
The suspected raider, 27, was remanded from his hospital bed, where he is recovering from a bullet wound to the hand police say was caused when the pistol he used for the hold-up backfired shortly after the heist. The suspect, who police say stole almost £28,000 from the bank, was bound over for eight days.
The suspected accomplice, a 37-year-old cabaret owner, was brought up before the Limassol District Court and remanded for five days.
The money taken in Friday’s 9.20am raid, in both Cypriot and foreign currency, had yet to be recovered yesterday.
Police arrested the suspect early on Friday afternoon after he went to Limassol hospital to seek treatment for the wound to his hand.
A vehicle thought to be the getaway car had earlier been found in flames at Ypsonas, not far from the Kato Polemidia bank.
The robber had stormed into the branch on Grigoris Afxentiou Avenue wearing a crash helmet with a visor. Speaking in Greek with a Cypriot accent, he threatened bank tellers and the three customers in the bank before stuffing his bag full of cash and making his getaway in a car parked outside.
The raid was a solo effort, but police suspect the cabaret owner helped plan the heist.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
