CRIME Chief Wendell Blanhum has told this publication that, contrary to an incident reported on a local online news website yesterday, detailing that a man was on Thursday night relieved of a bag containing $20M cash in the parking lot of an East Bank Demerara hotel which houses a casino, no such incident was reported to the Guyana Police Force (GPF).He added that a visit to the casino management by police also confirmed that no such robbery had occurred there.

The online news website reported that an elderly man was robbed of $20M on Thursday night, after he had uplifted the money from a relative who was in the casino gambling. The report had said that the money was not part of monies won through games played there.
The online news stated that soon after the man collected the cash and was on his way to the parking area, he was confronted by a group of men who were in a car, and they took away the money bag and escaped.

Meanwhile, sources at the casino have said that a robbery occurred there, and that $10M were taken from a man in the parking area. They said the surveillance cameras recorded the incident, but management has chosen to be tight-lipped about it.

A frequent visitor to the casino who was acquitted of the murder of his best friend had allegedly handed over the money to the elderly man mere minutes before the robbery occurred.
(Michel Outridge)