THE Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack, S.C., has filed an appeal against the decision of City Magistrate, Leron Daly, to free three men allegedly involved in the attempted armed robbery of Republic Bank’s Water Street Branch, Georgetown on the morning of July 4, 2017.

According to Police Headquarters, Crime Chief, Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum, has received word from Ali-Hack acknowledging receipt of the police file on the matter, and alluded to the fact that an appeal has already been filed in the said matter.

This comes against the backdrop of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) writing to the DPP requesting an appeal of the decision to free Gladston George, Anfernee Blackman and Shawn Grimond who are all jointly charged with attempt to commit a felony, to wit, robbery under arms committed on Republic Bank.

Ex-Police Constable, Blackman, of Laing Avenue, West Ruimveldt, Georgetown; ex-Rural Constable George of Princes Street, Lodge, Georgetown and former Republic Bank employee, Shawn Grimmond, of Pike Street, Kitty were freed of the charges on June 22, 2021, four years after the attempted robbery.

This was against the backdrop of a no-case submission made by their lawyers – Leslie Sobers and Roger Yearwood, along with Dexter Todd, who argued that the State failed to make out a case against the men. However, their co-accused, Keron Saunders, was not so lucky as the magistrate did not agree with his no-case submission and instead called on him to lead his defence on July 08.

It was reported that former Republic Bank employee, Jamal Haynes, 28, of Norton Street, Wortmanville, Georgetown, and his alleged accomplices, Elton Wray and Saunders, had orchestrated to purloin the Bank’s night deposits by businesses gained during a three-day weekend in a movie-style robbery on the day it occurred.

When the matter was first heard in 2017, Hanes had pleaded guilty and was was jailed for six years by Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan. Wray, a 25-year-old agronomist at the National Agriculture Research Extension Institute (NAREI), was shot in the chest during the robbery and died while receiving medical attention.

George and Blackman were, at the time, constables attached to the GPF; they allegedly aided the robbery attempt by providing firearms.