THE MADANG HEIST

SOUTH PACIFIC POST

William Nanua Kapris did not deliver K1.2 million of the Madang BSP heist to his Port Moresby-based sponsors within the time requested resulting in his capture along the Magi Highway.

In a lengthy allocutus he delivered to the National Court sitting in Madang last Thursday, Kapris said soon after the heist on the Metals Refinery Operations in Port Moresby and his escape from custody he returned home to Kimbe

He said it was while there that he got a call from Port Moresby that he would execute another robbery in Madang - the BSP Branch – and he was to travel there.

He told the court a sum of K20,000 wired for his movements through a Helen Minape’s bank account in Kimbe. He described the woman as his big sister having grown up with her in Kimbe.

He said one of his nephew’s hired a banana boat for him from a Talasea man and he travelled to Lae via Finshhafen. His boat skipper was Elvis Bala Aka and his other companion on the trip was Kito Aso. Kapris said they had no knowledge of his intentions to go onto Madang from Lae.

Kapris posed as Justin a gold buyer during the entire journey to Lae.

The court heard that during this leg of the journey and the return from Madang that he had met with and stayed with some of the people whom the state had called in to give evidence against him including Timon Takata whom he stated as being his brother inlaw and Ken Mai a friend who resided at Two Mile Block in Lae.

He said after arriving in Lae he had called Port Moresby to inform them of his arrival and this was when the next set of instructions were issued to him. He did not say who gave instructions, nor who sent the K20,000 to Minape’s account.

He said he travelled to Madang where, through his contacts in Port Moresby, was introduced to a man whom he named as Thomas a resident of Sisiak settlement who he said was of Madang and Morobe parentage and who also would become his contact person in Madang.

This contact subsequently introduced him to a police officer and several bank staff, one of whom was in charge of the automatic telling machines in Madang.

He said after the introductions he returned to Lae to Two-Mile where he stayed with Ezekiel Mai a relative of his friend Ken Mai.

The court heard upon his return and through the arrangement’s by his contacts in Port Moresby he had come across his co-accused Ruben Michah who was into the business of putting people onto hire cars.

“The planning of the entire robbery was done without Ruben’s knowledge of the real intentions of the hires,” he said.

He said he had returned to Madang after getting the call stating all was clear in Madang.

He said he drove to Madang then on to Malolo Hotel where on Friday morning he met again with Thomas who had arrived in a Green 10-seater vehicle.

He told the court that he had driven to Madang with six brand new police mobile officers’ uniforms which had been passed onto him by his nephew, a Dominic Manua, obtained from a policeman.

On Friday morning he and six others whom he named as Peter Makam, Mathew Bendu, George Wawa, Thomas Kiso and other person from Madang whom he was unable to name and headed for Bilbil outside Madang.

From there they headed out to the bank. Subsquent events that evening were the moving of several bank staff and their families to Malolo in two rooms which he had paid for.

Kapris said they got a call before 5am from the Madang police station with word all would be clear as a police parade was set to be conducted that morning.

He said he and the bank officers went to the bank where disarmed the security system and CCTV and moved to the strong-room where the staff had helped him to pack the money using the cloth used by the staff to cover their computers.

He said at about that time, another of the bank staff he had met earlier who was in charge of the ATM’s arrived.

He said they then moved the money into the 10-seater vehicle which had been driven by Thomas and they proceeded to Handimart where they refilled both vehicles with fuel before heading out to Malolo.

He said while on the way, one of the staff had suggested they raid the ATM’s at Modilon but he decided against that due to the time factor involved.

At Malolo and at the request of one of the staff and the spouse of another, a sum of K100,000 was left to help cover their tracks. As soon as he was informed that the road from Madang to Lae was clear, he drove to Lae.

Kapris said he left for Lae with K2.4million. Soon after his arrival in Lae, he was told to drop off the money at a Ian Wamu’s house at 7th Street.

He said he had got a call from William Lee from Hohola in Port Moresby to take take half of the money - K1.2 million - to Port Moresby.

He travelled by the same boat that took him from Kimbe to Lae and went along the coastline from Lae to Oro province, then to Milne Bay and into Central province.

He told the court he had arrived in Central province on July 12, a Saturday morning and had proceeded to Tamara Player Tomscoll’s house, who he said, was his girl friend.

He was told to drop off the money urgently but because it had been a very long and tiring journey he had opted to rest for four days.

He claimed that because he had not dropped the money off as directed, police were used to set up a road block and had him apprehended on July 17 while on his way to his wife’s village on Magi Highway.

He told the court he was shot four times and forced to reveal where the money was but he says he did not and that he lost consciousness after losing a lot of blood.

He was taken to Boroko police cells then to Bomana without any access to medical treatment.

He said it is by God’s grace that he is still alive.

He also told the court that the 11co-accused had no part in planning the robbery.