R1 BILLION gone!
That’s how much money has been “lost” as a result of cash-in-transit robberies in eight years between 2008 and 2016.
The best years for cash-in-transit robbers were 2014, when they got away with almost R213,9 million and 2016, when R187,7 million disappeared.
The information was provided by the Hawks. This followed a Public Access to Information Application lodged by News24.
“A total of R 1 071 430 410 cash was lost to the illicit market for the period under review,” read the document.
Cross-pavement robberies were the highest reported with 1 163 incidents in the same period, followed by 606 robberies on retail premises.
Vehicle-on-road incidents totalled 180 in this period.
The document noted that cash-in-transit robbery networks were highly organised and well resourced.
The Hawks said networks were formed and dissolved according to the nature of the mission and were co-ordinated by a mastermind or kingpin.
CEO of the SA Banking Risk Information Centre, Kalyani Pillay, said their statistics on record were similar to those presented by the Hawks.
He added that they didn’t disclose losses.
“We believe it is irresponsible to disclose losses, as it only serves to stimulate the criminal’s appetite to perpetuate this type of crime.” – NEWS24
