BUSINESS owners of a betting establishment have expressed their anger and disappointment after receiving no help after being robbed at gunpoint inside a bank.
An employee of the betting business was allegedly robbed of over R100 000 cash inside FNB bank on West Street on July 31.
However, FNB has denied the incident happened inside their bank and instead says the robbery happened outside their branch.
“FNB can confirm that an individual was accosted outside the Kempton Park branch and robbed during an associated robbery,” Lee-Anne van Zyl of FNB confirmed.
“The matter has been reported to the SAPS and FNB is co-operating with the investigation.”
However, the betting business insists that the incident happened inside the bank and they do not accept the statement by FNB.
The woman who was robbed, an employee of the horse betting business, was at the bank to deposit money when the incident occurred between 10.30 and 11am.
“It was a normal day when we went to the bank to deposit the money. As usual, I dropped *Julia off outside the bank, and she goes inside while I drive around the block. Before going inside, we usually check the coast to see if there is anything suspicious. And there wasn’t, so she went inside,” *Harriett, one of the business owners, explained.
Harriet went inside the back and waited in the queue. Three men approached her and held a gun to her head. They demanded she gives them the bag with the money, which she did. The money was inside her handbag.
In the meanwhile, Harriet hadn’t even gone around the corner when she received a phone call from the bank telling her Julia has just been robbed at gunpoint.
According to Harriet, they have never experienced something like this before.
“We have been running this business and depositing money for the past 20 years.”
“We are demanding answers from the bank. We just want to know one thing: how is it possible that people, with weapons on them, were allowed into the bank? It just doesn’t make sense. Over and above that, the bank has still not contacted us. We want to know what will happen with our money.”
They also say the bank has still not apologised for the incident and when they asked to speak to the manager, their request was denied.
“They wouldn’t even allow us to view the CCTV footage. The bank is supposed to be responsible for the safety of customers. How does a customer get robbed by armed men inside a bank?”
The business has unfortunately still not recovered their money and Julia was left traumatised by the incident.
Kempton police confirmed that a case of robbery with a firearm is investigated. No arrests have been made so far.
*Not their real names.
