This is the moment a former G4S security guard used an old company uniform to deceive bank staff into handing over £117,000 before fleeing to Ghana.
Footage played in court shows Kwabena Kissi, 40, carrying a large security briefcase and entering a Santander bank in Brixton, south London, on July 5, 2022.
He is wearing a helmet with the visor down and a face mask with his old uniform from when he worked for the G4S private security company from 2019 to 2020, a court heard.
Bank CCTV allegedly captures the moment Kissi tricked staff into granting him access to a secure office, where they unknowingly handed over bags containing £117,200 in cash. He then casually walks out with the money inside the briefcase.
He is later seen walking along the road carrying a bin bag with the cash inside, after changing his clothes.
Kissi then orders an Uber and is driven away from the scene.
Staff only realised they had been tricked when the real G4S guard arrived to make the regular Tuesday collection.
The thief flew to Accra, Ghana, the next day and stayed there for nearly four years.
Kissi’s deceitful plan only unravelled on March 26 this year when he returned to the UK, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
He had made the fatal mistake of ordering an Uber with his real name and phone number.
After Police were notified, he was intercepted on his landing at Gatwick Airport.
He initially claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, but officers discovered the same phone handset on him with which he booked the Uber – the same phone he had on him during the heist nearly four years earlier, police said.
He was jailed for three years and four months by Judge Rosa Dean at the same court. She told him that he had exploited his ‘inside knowledge’.
Imogen Nelson, prosecuting, said Kissi never returned his G4S uniform after he resigned in 2020.
The Santander branch’s vault manager Otis Williams said in his police statement that he had bagged up £256,000 for collection in eleven bags. At around 10.30am, Kissi turned up at the branch.
When one of the unsuspecting staff commented he was ‘there a little early,’ Kissi told him he was on a new route.
‘No suspicion arose at that stage. He did what any custodian from G4S would have done: he collected bags, put them in a briefcase, and took them out,’ the prosecutor said.
When Kissi did not return for a second pick-up, ‘alarm bells started ringing’.
‘The penny really dropped when they saw the genuine G4S custodian who was on delivery for that day parked up’ nearby,’ Ms Nelson said.
Kissi was able to steal £117,200 of the £256,000.
Santander employee Marlon Louis said in his statement he had worked for Santander for 25 years and was ‘devastated and worried he might lose his job’.
Mr Louis added: ‘This person has put my whole life in jeopardy.’
In April, Kissi, of no fixed address, admitted fraud by false representation, by showing cashiers false ID to steal the money.
Kissi denied a second charge of possessing criminal property, and the charge was dropped.
Piers Walter, defending, said Kissi fled to Ghana to care for his very ill mother, who was in ‘financial dire straits’. She has since d!ed of heart failure.
During her sentencing, Judge Dean said: ‘You left the staff at Santander feeling extremely upset, and I’m delighted to hear they were not subject to disciplinary action as a result of your fraud.
‘You tripped yourself up, of course, by booking an Uber in your own name with a phone number known to police. Having returned to Ghana, you later returned from Ghana to the UK and were arrested.
‘I note the pre-sentence report is pretty sceptical that the reason you flew to Ghana was to provide for your mother, but the reason was to evade detection.’
Detective Constable Stuart Ponder, who led the Met’s investigation, said: ‘We identified Kissi as our suspect thanks to extensive CCTV enquiries and phone evidence that linked him to the minicab he used as his getaway vehicle.
‘When we found that he had left the UK the day after the fraud, we feared he might never come back to face justice.
‘We kept our eyes on him, and officers were at the airport to arrest Kissi off the plane when he returned earlier this year. When they searched him, he still had the same phone he’d been using when he committed his heist in 2022.
‘This case demonstrates the Met’s commitment to tackling high-value thefts and securing justice – no matter how long it takes.’
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