Man held over £5,000 whisky raid

A 28-YEAR-old English Cypriot man was yesterday remanded in custody for eight days in connection with the armed theft of 30 cases of whisky worth £5,230 last month.

Two other suspects thought to have taken part in the robbery were still at large, police told the court.

Angelos Achilli was arrested on Wednesday after police matched DNA samples lifted from the scene at the Carlsberg outlet in the Aradhippou industrial estate.

Police told the court that three men took part in the robbery and not two as it was initially thought.

The hooded perpetrators, clad in black outfits, stormed the outlet at 6.50pm on February 28, and held employees Andreas Kyriakou, 50, and 48-year-old Maroulla Hadjipetri at gunpoint.

The robbers put a hood over Kyriacou’s head and used tape to tie him to a chair.

Hadjipetri managed to get away but was caught by one of the men as she reached the building’s exit.

One of the men also tore Kyriacou’s pocket with a knife and grabbed the car keys along with £550 in cash. Kyriacou was also hit with a pistol on the right cheek, police said.

The men then loaded 30 cases of whisky worth £5,230 and fled.

Hadjipetri notified police who scrambled to the scene to find Kyriacou still tied to the chair.

Police said they found evidence on the crime scene as well as in the getaway car, which was found in the Pervolia area the next day.

Among other things police found surgical gloves worn by one of the men to tie Kyriacou, which apparently remained stuck on the tape.

The court heard that DNA samples taken from the glove and a cigarette butt smoked by the suspect matched.

In the suspect’s flat, police found £2,035 in an envelope and various items of clothing including a blood stained T-shirt.

The suspect claimed he was somewhere else at the time of the robbery but police said his alibi had not checked out.