FOUR men were remanded to prison on Monday by Magistrate Rushelle Liverpool following an armed robbery spree on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD).

Jermaine Bailey, 23 of Lamaha Park Georgetown; Leon Williams, 24 of Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara; and Campton Semple, 30, of ‘D’ Field Sophia, were jointly charged with two counts of robbery under arms as they appeared before Magistrate Liverpool at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court.

Orwell Softley, 25, of Anna Catherina, WCD, was jointly charged with Bailey with three counts of robbery under arms; Bailey was also charged separately with the illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.

Particulars of the first set of charges alleged that on May 5, 2017 at Cornelia Ida WCD, while being armed with guns, Bailey, Williams and Semple robbed Roshnie Gaundra and Sheela Puran of a quantity of articles valued $323,000 and $120,000 respectively.

According to a police report, about 13:25hrs, four males entered the business operated by a mother and daughter and pretended to be customers. Minutes after, two of the men whipped out firearms, relieved the victims of their valuables, and as they fled the scene in a waiting Toyota Spacio motorcar, discharged several rounds in the air.

The matter was reported to the police and ranks promptly responded and intercepted the get-away car several villages east of Cornelia Ida, with only Semple inside.
Semple reportedly told the police that following the robbery, the bandits changed vehicles and were headed towards the Demerara Harbour Bridge.

Other ranks were duly alerted and as the bandits approached the ‘Bridge’ in the second getaway vehicle and saw that the police had set up a “road block” at the western end, they quickly sped south along the West Bank Public Road. But they only got as far as La Parfaite Harmonie, where the vehicle crashed into a concrete culvert.

At some point during the escape bid, the driver of that vehicle, identified as Williams, was accidentally shot in his upper right arm by one of his partners.

Meanwhile, Softley and Bailey in their desperation to get across the Harbour Bridge at all costs, abandoned the injured accomplice and boarded separate minibuses destined for Georgetown.

As it relates to the charges against Softley and Bailey, it is alleged that on April 29, 2017, at Anna Catherina, while being armed with a gun, they robbed Neshan Khan, Anthony Bashir and Shameeran Rahim of a quaintly of articles totaling $348,000. The duo pleaded guilty and was remanded to prison until June 6, 2017.

According to reports on April 29, at about 20:00hrs, gunmen stormed Bashir’s Anna Catherina store and relieved him and his staff of their mobile phones and cash.

In addition they carted off with a quantity of phone cards and an undisclosed sum of money from a drawer in the shop. Additionally, Bailey was charged with having a .32 pistol in his possession without being the holder of a firearm licence on May 5, 2017 at the Demerara Harbour Bridge.

Baily denied that charge and was remanded to prison until May 29, 2017 and this matter was transferred to the Wales Magistrate’s Court.